Finland considers joining NATO without Sweden

Finland’s foreign minister announced yesterday that his country should explore joining NATO without Sweden, the first of its kind since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled out giving the green light to Stockholm’s candidacy. Pekka Haavisto said on the public television Eli that the joint accession of the two Nordic countries remains “the first option”, but “we must of course assess the situation, examine whether what has happened will not prevent Sweden from moving forward in the long term ”, considering at the same time that “it is too early to take a stand. Far-right Danish-Swedish Rasmus Paludan burned a copy of the Quran in a separate police-sanctioned demonstration Saturday afternoon in front of the Turkish embassy in the Swedish capital, sparking massive protests in Turkey and the Islamic world. Erdogan said on Monday: “Sweden can no longer count on Turkey’s ‘support’ after this incident, which is the second between the two countries since the beginning of the year, after pro-Kurdish activists hung an Erdogan doll in mid-January. from feet in front of the municipal building of Stockholm. Haavisto believed that these protests constituted an “obstacle” to a NATO nomination and that “the protesters are playing with the security of Finland and Sweden”. Unlike Sweden, Turkey has not expressed serious objections to Finland joining the alliance in recent months, and any new NATO membership must be approved by all 30 member states, including Turkey, effectively giving any country a veto.