Finland waits for Turkey to act

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said they hope Turkey will take action after receiving positive messages about his country’s NATO membership.

Entering the EU Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Brussels, Haavisto answered questions from journalists. When asked about his country’s NATO membership, Haavisto recalled that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited Turkey today and said: “I’m sure the message from the US is: The sooner Sweden and Finland become NATO members, the better.”

Recalling that Turkey and Hungary, out of the 30 NATO countries, have not yet ratified the accession protocols, Haavisto stated that they hoped that these two countries would approve as soon as possible, that they did their part and that the decision is up to the countries from NATO.

Haavisto, who stated that Turkey had a positive approach only to Finland’s membership of Sweden and Finland, and was asked about it, said:

“The message we got from Turkey was that we, as Finland, stick to the issues we agreed to in the tripartite memorandum last summer. Of course, this is a positive message, but Turkey still needs to act.” (AA)