“The request to join NATO was for us (…) a natural step,” said Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.
Finland’s request to join NATO was “the natural step” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland’s foreign minister said today Peka Haavisto during an international security conference being held in Bahrain.
THE Finland and Sweden they submitted a joint application for NATO membership in May, abandoning their decades-long policy of military neutrality.
This request, which must be accepted unanimously, has been ratified by all member countries of the Alliance, with the exception of Turkey and Hungary.
“The request for membership in NATO was for us (…) a natural step,” said Haavisto.
The Finnish minister recalled that Helsinki had announced in 2004 that “the NATO option” would be considered in the event of a “dramatic change” in the security situation.
“And what could be considered a more dramatic change than an attack by our neighbor against a country of 50 million people?” he added.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blocked the two Nordic countries from joining NATO since May, mainly accusing them of harboring Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), whom Ankara considers “terrorists”.
Hungary cited legislative workload and pledged to ratify Sweden and Finland’s request soon.
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