Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has revealed Ankara will approve Finland’s NATO application before the country’s May election. Erdoğan made the announcement after meeting with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in Ankara.
Finland submitted a joint application with Sweden to join the North Atlantic alliance last May.
While most members of the alliance wanted to expedite membership for the Nordic countries, Turkey resisted due to Helsinki and Stockholm’s support for Kurdish groups that Ankara views as terrorists.
In June, Turkey signed a trilateral pact with the two Nordic countries that would see Sweden and Finland join NATO.
However, Ankara has repeatedly said that it could not admit the two countries into the alliance because Sweden was not living up to their end of the agreement.
On Friday (March 17), Erdoğan said, “we decided to start the ratification process in our Parliament for Finland’s membership.”
As Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party controls Turkey’s legislature, the approval is expected to pass.
Source:Antiwar.com
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