1:0 in favor of Turkey – how is the admission of Sweden and Finland to NATO

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan began his game with the admission of new members to NATO – Finland and Sweden. Ankara has blocked the start of consideration of applications from these countries.

This is reported by The Financial Times, citing an informed source.

What is known

On May 18, Permanent Representatives of NATO countries held a meeting to immediately begin negotiations on the admission of Finland and Sweden to the organization. In the morning, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg received in Brussels from the ambassadors of Finland and Sweden applications for membership of their countries in the alliance.

“Objections from Ankara derailed the vote”said the British newspaper.

The publication indicates that because of this situation, NATO will probably not be able to agree on the first stage of considering applications from Finland and Sweden within one or two weeks, as the alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg originally planned.

Bargaining question

• Bloomberg, citing unnamed Turkish officials, reported that the Turkish authorities, in exchange for agreeing to the membership of Sweden and Finland in NATO, demand, in particular, the lifting by European countries of restrictions on the export of weapons, as well as the lifting of US sanctions for the acquired Russian S-400 systems.
• The official version of Ankara’s refusal is that Sweden is an “incubation center for terrorist organizations”, since it has sheltered hundreds of representatives of the PKK banned in Turkey.
• This position of Turkey is very pleasing to Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin has threatened that the plans of Finland and Sweden to join NATO will cause a “backlash” from the Kremlin.
• On May 15, the authorities of Sweden and Finland officially announced their decision to abandon their neutral status and apply for membership in NATO.