Turkey has agreed to Finland’s admission to NATO. Turkey’s parliament voted shortly before midnight on Thursday to include the northern European country in the defense alliance. All 30 NATO members have now approved Finnish membership.
All 276 members of the Turkish parliament present gave the go-ahead for the Finnish application for membership. “Tonight we are keeping the promises we made to Finland,” said MP Akif Cagatay Kilic from the ruling AKP party in the live broadcast of the meeting. After months of blockade, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suddenly approved Finland’s accession in mid-March. Finland shares a 1340 km border with Russia. Under the impression of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country decided last May, together with Sweden, to apply for admission to the western defense alliance. Joining next week? After Turkey’s final approval, Finland could already be 31 next week. become a member of NATO. Outstanding formalities should be completed in the next few days, several diplomats told the German Press Agency on Thursday in Brussels. Sweden is still blocked Finland actually wanted to join NATO together with Sweden. So far, this has failed because of Ankara and Budapest. Turkey accuses Sweden of not acting consistently enough against “terrorist organizations” and criticizes the fact that extradition requests are not answered. Sweden recently submitted a draft for tougher terror laws – but so far this has not changed anything about the Turkish blockade. The next NATO summit will take place in July in Lithuania. Despite Turkey’s existing objections, the Swedish government was confident that it would then be able to become a member of the alliance in Vilnius.