Erdogan endorses Finland’s NATO bid, but leaves Sweden in limbo

Turkey’s President Erdogan signed off on Finland’s NATO membership on Friday — removing the biggest obstacle to the Nordic country joining the alliance. With a difficult election coming in May, however, Turkey’s president keeps insisting that Sweden is harboring alleged Kurdish terrorists and other dissidents.

So far, Sweden’s efforts to placate Turkey, including with the introduction of a new terrorism law, have failed. Both Finland and Sweden had pledged to enter the alliance “hand in hand”, but it now appears this is unlikely.

Howard Eissenstat, a non-resident scholar with the Middle East Institute’s Turkey Program and an associate professor of history at St. Lawrence University, joins Thanos Davelis to break down Erdogan’s decision to green-light Finland’s NATO membership bid, but continue to leave Sweden in limbo.