FMs discuss joint move for Finland, Sweden´s NATO accession

Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto on Saturday held a telephone conversation with his Swedish counterpart Tobias Billström discussed on joint move so that both Finland and Sweden could be members of NATO before the upcoming Vilnius Summit scheduled for July, said the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a twitter post.

“Good telephone conversation with my Swedish colleague Tobias Billström after returning from Ankara. Working together so that both Finland and Sweden could be members of Nato before the Vilnius Summit,” sait the twitter post, quoting Haavisto as saying.

Haavisto visited Turkey along with President Sauli Niinistö on Thursday and Friday and held a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.

“Good meeting today (Friday) with my Turkish colleague Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara. Discussed a variety of topics - European security, global developments, grain deal and global food security, bilateral relationship between Finland and Türkiye,” the Foreign Ministry wrote in another twitter post on Friday, quoting Haavisto as saying.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday signed his decision to send the ratification of Finland’s NATO membership to the Parliament of Turkey separately without Sweden.

Erdogan at a joint press conference after a meeting with President Sauli Niinistö, said that Finland had fulfilled its responsibilities as per the tripartite deal agreed during a NATO summit in Madrid last summer.

Speaking at the press conference Niinistö also raised the issue of Sweden’s membership of NATO and stated that Finland’s membership of NATO is not complete without Sweden.

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

Hungary and Turkey are the only NATO members, who did not ratify the accession protocol for Finland and Sweden.

Hungarian ruling party Fidesz on Friday announced that the parliament of the country will vote on Finland´s NATO accession protocol on March 27 and the party will unanimously support in favour of Finland´s membership.

“On behalf of the Fidesz faction, I inform you that we have decided to support Finland's accession to NATO. The parliamentary vote on this will be brought forward to 27 March, and we will vote unanimously yes,” the chair of its parliamentary group, Máté Kocsis wrote in a Facebook post.

He, however, wrote that in the case of Sweden, the delegation will decide later.