After Months Of Political Deadlock, Turkey’s Erdogan Backs Finland’s NATO Bid
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Sulaiman
- . March 18, 2023
- . Update: March 18, 2023 10:18 pm
After months of political deadlock over the Nordic countries’ drive to join NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has agreed to back Finland’s bid to join NATO.
On Friday, the Turkish President asked parliament to quickly back Finland’s bid to join NATO. He further said that Turkey would ratify Finland’s NATO membership.
The Turkish President met with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. Niinisto arrived in Turkey to get final approval from the Turkish President. The President of Finland announced on March 15 that Turkey had reached a decision on ratifying Finland’s NATO bid, paving the way for Finland to join the military bloc. He revealed that Turkey would accept Finland’s NATO membership before the Finnish parliamentary elections in April.
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To join the military bloc, NATO countries must unanimously agree on new members. Hungary’s legislature will vote on the ratification of Finland’s NATO membership on March 27. Mate Kocsis, the President of the Hungarian Handball Federation, said that the majority ruling party bloc would unanimously support Finland’s bid to join the bloc. He further said that the Fidesz parliamentary group will also decide on Sweden’s NATO accession. However, he did not specify the exact date to vote on the ratification of Sweden’s NATO membership. All 30 NATO members need to ratify the applications. After the vote, NATO would grow to 31 nations within a few months.
Finland asked NATO to join the US-led alliance after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In May 2022, Finland and Sweden submitted their written applications to join NATO. However, Turkey refused to approve their application to join the bloc, saying that the two countries had links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is described as “terrorists” by Turkey. The political deadlock delayed Finland’s bid to join NATO.
