Turkey moves ahead with ratification of Finland’s membership of NATO

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced this Friday that Turkey will begin the ratification process of Finland’s proposed membership of NATO. The revelation was made at the joint press conference with his Finnish counterpart, Sauli Niinistö, in Ankara, Turkey.

Regarding Sweden’s application for membership, Erdogan said that Turkey will continue talks with that country on issues related to terrorism.

According to the Reuters agency, Erdogan alluded to a list with the names of 120 alleged terrorists delivered to the Swedish authorities that Turkey wanted to see repatriated, but this did not happen.

Erdogan said he still hoped the process would be completed before the May elections.

The process of entry of a country into NATO is carried out with the agreement of all members of the Atlantic Alliance. Since last year, Turkey has shown reservations about Finnish and Swedish membership applications.

Sweden and Finland renounced their traditional policy of military non-alignment and applied to join the Atlantic Alliance in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.