Erdogan is critical of Finland and Sweden joining NATO

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been critical of Finland and Sweden joining NATO. “We are currently monitoring developments regarding Sweden and Finland, but we do not have a positive opinion on them,” Erdogan said on Friday. Scandinavian countries are almost “guesthouses for terrorist organizations” like the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK.

The admission of new members must be approved unanimously by the NATO member states. Turkey would thus have the opportunity to block the admission of Sweden and Finland.

Finland and neighboring Sweden are already close partners of NATO, but have not yet become official members. The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has set in motion aspirations for the two Scandinavian countries to join. The Finnish head of state spoke out in favor of an “immediate” application to the western defense alliance on Thursday.

Security analysis in Sweden on NATO accession

An eagerly awaited security analysis published on Friday revealed the advantages of a NATO entry for the previously non-aligned country in Sweden. “Swedish NATO membership would raise the threshold for military conflicts and thus have a conflict-preventing effect in Northern Europe,” it says. The document does not provide a clear recommendation for or against joining the defense alliance. However, it is considered the basis for a decision by the Scandinavian EU country on possible NATO membership.

“We find that the Russian crisis is structural, systematic and protracted,” said Foreign Minister Ann Linde at the presentation of the report that the parliamentary parties wrote together with the government. This is the basis of the entire analysis. The biggest consequence of a possible NATO membership would be that Sweden would come under the collective security of the alliance.

According to the report, Sweden would not only strengthen its own security with membership, but also contribute to the security of like-minded neighboring countries. The prospect of joining NATO would give Sweden security guarantees that would not exist without membership.

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A disadvantage of Sweden’s accession would therefore be that Russia could react negatively to it. Attempts to influence the public and decision-makers in Sweden are considered the most likely. Cyber ​​attacks are also conceivable. On Thursday, Russia warned against the admission of Finland and Sweden to NATO. This would not “make the world and our continent any more stable and secure,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The Social Democrats of Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, who are in power in a minority government, want to make a decision on their own position on the NATO issue on Sunday. If they are in favor of joining, a corresponding Swedish application could possibly be made the next day. The safety analysis was written by the eight Swedish parliamentary parties and the government. The NATO-critical Greens and Left were the only ones who objected to the final sentences of the analysis. (dpa, AFP)