Turkey has the right to decide how it wants to ratify Finland and Sweden’s NATO memberships, the alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, even as he urged Ankara to give the green light to both Nordic countries.
(Bloomberg) —
Turkey has the right to decide how it wants to ratify Finland and Sweden’s NATO memberships, the alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, even as he urged Ankara to give the green light to both Nordic countries.
“It is for Turkiye to decide whether they ratify both — and I recommend that — or whether they ratify only one of the documents — that’s not a NATO decision, it’s a decision by Turkiye,” Stoltenberg told reporters on Wednesday following a two-day meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers in Brussels.
Stoltenberg’s comments come as the possibility increases that Turkey could approve Finland’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization while continuing to hold out on ratifying Sweden’s membership.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has objected to Sweden over concerns that Stockholm isn’t doing enough to crack down on Kurdish groups Ankara considers terrorists, and last month ruled out supporting its bid after a puppet in his likeness was suspended upside down in the center of the Swedish capital and a copy of the Koran burned in a demonstration.
The Nordic countries submitted their bids together last spring and all 30 allies formally invited the countries to join the alliance, but they won’t become members until Turkey and Hungary ratify the applications.
In recent weeks, focus had shifted to completing the enlargement by NATO’s summit in Vilnius mid-July following elections in Turkey but it’s unclear how the recent earthquake may affect that timeline.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday that he hopes both Nordic nations are members by July, adding “they’re ready to join now” and “bring a lot to the table.”
Stoltenberg stressed the countries’ eventual membership was more important than the sequencing of the applications, adding that he would “push hard for that” when he meets with Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Turkey on Thursday.
The NATO chief said he would also lay out how allies could provide support to Turkey following the devastating earthquake.
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