Finland forges ahead to join NATO after parliament approves its accession

Finland has edged closer to joining NATO after its parliament overwhelmingly passed legislation necessary for allowing the country to be a member of the transatlantic military alliance and Hungary’s ruling party said it would support the bid.

Finland’s parliament on Wednesday voted in favor of joining NATO, with a final vote of 184 to 7. The government’s chancellor of justice, Tuomas Poysti, said that after the bill was approved by the parliament, the president can wait a maximum of three months to sign it.

Last week, Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto told reporters that he intended to sign the measure “as soon as it is approved by parliament,” but “if there are practical reasons, I can wait.”

While joining NATO requires ratifications from all of its 30 members, Finnish lawmakers have pushed for the legislation to be passed before general elections on April 2 to avoid a political vacuum.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, speaking to the press alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a parliamentary debate, said she would have hoped Finland and Sweden were already members by now as they had met all the requirements. 

“Of course, this strains the open door policy of NATO as well,” she said. “It has to do with NATO's credibility.”

Hungary’s parliament began debating the ratification on Wednesday and could vote this month. Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who controls the government and legislature, has said he supports the application, but recently raised the possibility that members of Parliament from his governing Fidesz party might not.

Turkey says it does not support Sweden’s NATO bid over Quran sacrilege

The president was addressing the representatives of the Justice and Development Party in parliament.

Finland and Sweden had pledged to enter the alliance “hand in hand,” but Sweden’s application has been held up by Turkey. So if Turkey and Hungary soon approve the Finnish application, as is expected, Finland will join NATO without its Nordic partner.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has warned that leaving his country outside NATO alone could create a security problem for both Sweden and for the alliance.

Finland pushed Sweden to apply to join NATO after Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine a year ago. Both countries are members of the European Union, but judged that their traditional policies of military nonalignment were untenable after the war in Ukraine.

A majority of Finns (53%) want to join NATO without waiting for Sweden, according to a poll published in early February.

In a news conference in Helsinki on Tuesday, Stoltenberg expressed confidence that both Sweden and Finland would soon enter the alliance and that new trilateral talks would take place next week in Brussels. NATO has previously said it hopes both Nordic countries will be members in time for a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, scheduled for July 11.

Turkey announced on Monday that negotiations with Finland and Sweden would resume on March 9 after talks with Sweden were dropped over a row about protests held in Stockholm, including a burning of the Quran in front of Turkey’s embassy.

Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said this week Sweden had still not fulfilled its obligations under a memorandum signed last year. “Unfortunately, we have not seen satisfactory steps from Sweden,” he said. “It is not possible for us to say yes to Sweden’s NATO bid before we see these steps.”

On May 13, days before the two countries submitted formal applications for NATO membership, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he opposed allowing them to join the alliance, describing the two countries as “home to many terrorist organizations.”

However, in recent weeks, Erdogan has softened his tone concerning Finland's attemp to join NATO, signaling that Ankara could accept Helsinki’s bid without its Nordic neighbour.

Members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) regularly clash with Turkish forces in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of the country bordering northern Iraq. The decades-long conflict between Turkey and the autonomy-seeking militant group has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people.

The Turkish government has accused Finland and Sweden of giving a safe haven to the PKK and refusing to extradite its members.

Russia has also angrily reacted to the applications of the two countries to join NATO.

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