Addis Ababa, May 19, 2022 (Walta) – After an intensely political process, Finland and Sweden handed in their formal requests for North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO membership on Wednesday.
The bids were warmly received by Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, as he welcomed NATO ambassadors from both countries to the bloc’s headquarters in Brussels.
Having previously served as Prime Minister of Norway, Stoltenberg said the decisions of his Nordic neighbors to join NATO come at “a critical moment for our [Norway’s] security.”
Stoltenberg said that existing member countries agree on the importance of expansion. He also stressed that while the bloc is already strong in the Baltic region, it will help to increase security overall.
Turkey has so far indicated it won’t support the idea of further Nordic accession into the world’s largest military alliance something that may quickly put an end to these bids. Any NATO expansion requires the backing of all its 30 member states, which could make Turkey a kingmaker when it comes to the final call on the requests.
As a close ally of Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may be struggling to balance his nation’s support for Ukraine’s right to self-determination with preserving relations with Moscow.
Turkey said it does not support NATO enlargement over the Nordic countries’ links to what it views as terrorist organizations, a label refuted by many members of their Kurdish communities.
“In their eyes, I’m a terrorist, my child is a terrorist, my unborn child is also a terrorist because we are Kurds,” said Vefa Bedlisi from Sweden’s Kurdish Democratic Society Center.
Erdogan has accused Sweden and Finland of harboring followers of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, whom it believes was behind a coup attempt in 2016, and supporters of the militant organization Kurdistan Workers Party.