Turkey is ready to start the process of ratifying Finland’s NATO membership

Turkey is ready to begin the ratification of Finland’s membership in NATO, a vote in the national parliament on this issue may take place before May 15. This was announced by Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan following talks with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niiniste, TASS reports.

Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO in May 2022, Parlamentskaya Gazeta reported. However, the process of their joining the military bloc was blocked by Turkey, which demanded that they extradite persons involved in terrorism and ban the PKK on its territory. Later, negotiations with Sweden on NATO membership were postponed after the burning of the Koran at the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.

By now, according to Erdogan, Finland has taken concrete steps to fulfill the terms of the memorandum. “We are ready and have decided to start the process of ratifying Finland’s accession to NATO,” Erdogan said and expressed confidence that Helsinki would play an active role in ensuring the security of the alliance.

The Turkish President also did not rule out that a vote in the national parliament on the issue of ratification could take place before the national elections scheduled in Turkey for May 14.

Read also:

• Finland’s Parliament voted for the country’s entry into NATO • NATO announced progress in negotiations with Turkey on Sweden’s membership in the alliance • Stoltenberg announced a visit to Turkey to discuss NATO expansion