Turkey to start ratifying Finland’s NATO bid, Erdogan says

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey’s parliament will begin ratifying Finland’s NATO bid, but not that of Sweden, removing the biggest remaining hurdle to enlarging the Western defense alliance as war continues to rage in Ukraine.

Speaking in Ankara alongside Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto, Erdogan said Helsinki won Turkey’s blessing after taking concrete steps to keep its promises to crack down on what it sees as terrorists and to free up defense exports.

Ankara will continue discussions with Stockholm on terrorism-related issues and Sweden’s NATO membership bid would depend directly on measures taken, he added.

NATO requires the unanimous approval of its 30 existing members to expand, and Turkey and Hungary are the only countries that have not yet ratified the Nordic nation’s bids. The Turkish government accused both Sweden and Finland of being too soft on groups that it deems to be terror organizations, but expressed more reservations about Sweden.

“When it comes to fulfilling its pledges in the trilateral memorandum of understanding, we have seen that Finland has taken authentic and concrete steps,” Erdogan told reporters after meeting with Niinisto, adding he hoped parliament would endorse the bid before May 14 elections..

“We have decided to initiate the ratification of Finland’s accession process to NATO in our parliament,” Erdogan said.

Niinisto said he welcomed the decision and called it “very important” for Finland, which shares a long border with Russia.

In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland applied last year to join the trans-Atlantic pact but faced unexpected objections from Turkey. Ankara says Stockholm harbors members of terrorist groups, a charge Sweden denies.

Apart from Hungary, whose ruling party has said it backs the two Nordic bids but has delayed steps, Turkey is the only NATO member not yet to have given Finland and Sweden its green light.

A series of separate demonstrations in Stockholm, including a protest by an anti-Islam activist who burned the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy, also angered Turkish officials.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and lawmakers have repeatedly promised to ratify the two country’s NATO membership applications. But the country’s parliament has repeatedly postponed a ratification vote and hasn’t given a firm date on when the vote would take place.

Erdogan on Wednesday suggested that his country may soon agree to Finland’s application to join NATO. Turkish officials previously said that Finland joining ahead of Sweden was a more likely outcome.

Niinisto arrived in Turkey on Thursday and toured areas affected by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that killed more than 52,000 people in Turkey and Syria last month.

“I have known Erdogan for a long time. I am sure he has important messages,” Niinisto said Thursday while visiting Kahramanmaras, one of the provinces worst-hit by the Feb. 6 earthquake.

Before leaving Helsinki, Niinisto said Turkish officials had requested his presence in Ankara to announce Turkey’s decision on the Finnish bid. He also stressed his support for Sweden’s swift admission and in a Twitter post said he had had a “good conversation” with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson prior to his Turkey trip.

Kristersson said Sweden hoped for “a rapid ratification process” after Turkey’s May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections. [Reuters, AP]