Turkey is going to ratify Finland’s accession to NATO, - Bloomberg
Turkey is approaching the ratification of Finland’s accession to NATO. This will bring the Alliance one step closer to accepting the 31st member.
This is reported by Censor.NET with reference to Bloomberg.
Today, the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is meeting with the leader of Finland, Sauli Niinistä, in Ankara. Erdoğan has said earlier that he plans to fulfill a promise made to Finland regarding its bid to join NATO. At 04:45 p.m. local time, they will hold a joint press conference.
Turkey's potential ratification of the bid could leave Hungary as the final obstacle to Finland's path to NATO if Prime Minister Orbán continues to delay a vote in parliament. Hungary plans to vote on Finland's and Sweden's bids in late March or early April after numerous delays.
At the same time, it calls into question Sweden's accession to the Alliance. It will be recalled that Turkey is blocking Sweden's accession to NATO because of Sweden's support for the Kurds. The Kurds are a people without their own state, who seek independence. In particular, about 14-20 million Kurds live in Turkey.
Finland's membership would allow the alliance to begin policing the area around the Baltic Sea to protect its Baltic members, who are often seen as potential targets of Russian aggression. The inclusion of Finland in the Alliance will increase the length of NATO's border with Russia. It would also allow NATO to improve its surveillance of Russia's western flank with the help of Finland's well-trained military, which already uses NATO-compatible weapons.
