At some point after Türkiye greenlit its accession bid for NATO, Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö defended their choice to proceed with accession to NATO with out its neighbor Sweden.
“Ought to we have now rejected ratification by Türkiye? That sounds a bit loopy,” Niinistö stated in an interview with Sweden’s SVT nationwide public service that was broadcast in full on Saturday night. “It could have been a really problematic state of affairs if we had stated ‘no’ to Ankara,” he added.
Niinistö’s feedback got here after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan introduced on Friday that his authorities would start the ratification course of for Finland.
Whereas he had all the time emphasised that Finland would go “hand-in-hand” with Sweden to the extent that the choice was theirs, ratification finally lay with Türkiye and Hungary, the 2 NATO members but to approve the functions, Niinistö stated.
After a long time of neutrality, the 2 Nordic nations utilized to hitch the trans-Atlantic protection alliance final Might following Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine. They clarified that they wished to hitch collectively.