PM reiterates to join NATO together with Sweden

Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Sunday reiterated that Finland aimed to join North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) together with Sweden.

Talking to the national broadcaster Yle Radio 1 during the prime minister's question hour, she also said that it would be problematic from the perspective of NATO's defence planning if Finland joined first, leaving Sweden to wait.

"We cannot influence the decisions of Turkey and Hungary. We have told them that we [Finland and Sweden] want to join NATO together,” said the Premier.

Earlier on February 2, Marin said that Finland would continue to advance the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership process together with Sweden.

On January 30, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that although the two Nordic countries had requested to join NATO together, Finland had taken some steps, while there were "provocations" in Sweden.

Among other things, Turkey has objected to a demonstration in Stockholm, where a copy of the Quran was burnt outside the Turkish Embassy.

Turkey has also postponed a trilateral meeting with Sweden and Finland on their NATO bids.

Turkey is demanding concrete Finnish and Swedish actions to address Turkish security concerns over extraditing hostile groups members before it unblocks their accession into NATO.

Another country Hungary did not ratify the membership yet, although Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on November 2 assured President Sauli Niinistö that his country will ratify Finland´s NATO accession protocol.

Finland and Sweden submitted the NATO membership applications in May.

Their accession procedure officially started in early July after 30 NATO members, including Turkey signed accession protocols.

So far 28 countries out of total 30 ratified the NATO accession protocols for Finland and Sweden.

The countries are USA, Italy, Canada, Estonia, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, United Kingdom, Albania, Poland, Latvia, Slovenia, Croatia, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Lithuania, Montenegro, Belgium, North Macedonia, France, Czech Republic, Greece, Spain Portugal and Slovakia ratified the membership protocols.

In late June, the Foreign Ministers of Finland, Sweden and Turkey signed a trilateral memorandum which confirms that Turkey will support the Finland´s and Sweden´s NATO membership applications.