Finland hopes for Turkey's approval for NATO membership, considers arms exports

With Finland and Sweden looking to join the NATO alliance, the two Nordic countries have yet to meet the demands set by Turkey to gain its approval for its membership. Finland’s defense minister said that the sooner Turkey approves its membership in the alliance, the sooner the country can grant Turkey an arms export permit.

Finnish defense minister Antti Kaikkonen said Thursday in an interview with Reuters shortly after meeting with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar in the capital Ankara, the sooner Turkey ratifies Finland’s membership in the NATO alliance, the better. Kaikkonen said that he could not predict a timeframe for Turkey’s ratification of Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership.

A lawmaker from Turkey’s governing AK Party said that the speed of ratification of Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership depends on how soon they can meet Turkey’s requests.

Both countries applied for membership in the alliance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, Turkey was the lone holdout in the two Nordic countries’ application to join the alliance, accusing the two countries of harboring Kurdish militants it has outlawed and demanded that the two countries take a stronger stance against the militants and also lift an arms embargo among other requirements.

“In the memorandum of understanding signed in Madrid, it’s written that there’s no arms embargo and that is the state of play at the moment. We make decisions on a case-by-case basis,” said Kaikkonen.

Kaikkonen also stressed that Finland preferred to join the NATO alliance alongside Sweden, not alone.

“Our clear goal is to join NATO hand in hand and I think it would be best for NATO as well,” said Kaikkonen.

Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto also said on Thursday in a news conference in Washington with his Swedish and American counterparts that Ankara’s concerns that were stated in the memorandum of the agreement were already clarified. However, Haavisto noted that the date of ratification by Turkey was still unknown.

“What we are still missing is the clear date, a clear plan for the Turkish parliament to deal with this issue,” said Haavisto. “We know that Turkey is going to elections, of course, our hope is that a decision by Turkey comes sooner rather than later.”