Finland ready to join NATO even if Turkey does not ratify Sweden's application

Finland will join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) without waiting for Sweden, with which it applied to join the alliance if Turkiye ratifies only its accession protocol.

This follows from a statement by the Minister of Defense of Finland, Mikko Savola, the Associated Press writes.

Savola said Finland would prefer the countries to join the alliance together, but would not delay the process if Turkiye decided to approve Finland but not Sweden, as it had warned.

"No, no. Then we will join," he said.

After the countries broke a decade of non-alignment following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, Finland and Sweden have insisted they want to join NATO together. But Turkiye's reluctance to accept Sweden unless it ramps up pressure on Kurdish exile groups has made it more likely that they will have to join the alliance at varying speeds.

"Sweden is our closest partner. Almost every week, our defense forces conduct joint exercises, and so on. This is a very deep cooperation, and we also fully trust each other. But now it is in the hands of Turkiye," Savola said.

Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin said the country wants to join NATO with Sweden, but "cannot influence" how the countries ratify the accession protocols.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said that if Turkiye says "yes" to Finland but "no" to Sweden, it will create a difficult situation.

"Our hands are tied in a way. We applied for membership. Should we now say, 'No, we're canceling our application?' No, we can't just do that," Niinisto said.

All NATO countries, except Turkiye and Hungary, have already given both countries the green light to join the alliance. Hungary has said it will do so soon, but Turkiye says Sweden had not done enough to address Turkiye's national security concerns, which has split NATO at a time when the U.S. and other allies are seeking a united front against Russia.

"The main question is not whether Finland and Sweden will join simultaneously. The main question is that Finland and Sweden join as soon as possible, and of course, it is Turkiye's decision whether to ratify both protocols or just one protocol," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Munich on Friday, February 17.

Finnish Defense Minister Mikko Savola expressed hope that Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, would become a member of the alliance before a NATO summit in July.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, Turkiye wants to buy USD 20 billion worth of arms from the U.S., including the purchase of 40 F-16 Block 70 fighter jets and the modernization of existing aircraft. Still, the entire deal is under serious threat due to the fact that Ankara is currently blocking Sweden's entry into NATO and Finland.