foreign minister
NATO dispute with Turkey determines Baerbock’s trip to Northern Europe
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and her Swedish counterpart Tobias Billström in Stockholm. photo
© Christophe Gateau/dpa
Sweden and Finland want to join NATO as soon as possible. Turkey is thwarting that. Foreign Minister Baerbock sees all criteria met – and is putting pressure on them.
Despite Turkey’s ongoing blockade, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock would like to see Sweden and Finland in the defense alliance before the next NATO summit in the summer. The two northern European countries met the targets agreed at the last summit in Madrid, the Green politician confirmed during a visit to Stockholm.
It is important for NATO as a whole that the two states can join the alliance before the next NATO summit in July in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. The expectation is that Turkey and Hungary will now also implement their accession without further delay.
The day before, during a visit to the Finnish capital Helsinki, Baerbock had urged that Turkey and Hungary be the last of the 30 members to ratify the alliance, citing agreements from the NATO summit in Madrid in summer 2021. At the time, Finland, Sweden and Turkey had agreed on a trilateral memorandum addressing Turkish concerns about the fight against terrorism, among other things. At the time, the dispute seemed resolved, and the way clear for Sweden and Finland.
Ankara blocks admission
But Turkey is still blocking the admission of the northern Europeans: in response to the burning of the Koran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently threatened that Sweden could not count on Turkish support for its NATO application. The fact that elections are due in Turkey in a few months also plays a role in the dispute.
It was right and important that Sweden approached Ankara as part of the memorandum to address Turkey’s concerns, Baerbock said at a press conference in Stockholm with Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström. “But now it’s a matter of ensuring that what was promised in Madrid is implemented quickly and jointly by all NATO countries, so that you can become a member of the NATO alliance hand in hand with Finland.” Sweden met all NATO criteria from day one.
First Finland and later – maybe – Sweden?
In view of Turkey’s objections to Sweden, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg surprisingly signaled openness to separate accession for the two countries. The most important question is not whether Turkey will ratify the accession protocols together, he said at a defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels when asked whether it would be acceptable for NATO that Turkey initially only agreed to Finland’s accession. It is crucial that both countries become official NATO members “as soon as possible”.
A possible background to Stoltenberg’s statements is the current debate in Finland about whether the country should initially join alone in the event of a continuing Turkish blockade against Sweden joining the alliance. NATO circles said that Finland’s admission was strategically more important than Sweden’s. Unlike Sweden, Finland shares a border with Russia. It is around 1,340 kilometers long – almost exactly three times as long as the border between Germany and France, as Baerbock emphasized in Helsinki on Monday.
Turkey’s ongoing blockade has been causing a bad mood in the alliance for months. Ankara justifies its stance primarily with Sweden’s alleged support of “terrorist organizations”. Above all, it means the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK.
The governments in Stockholm and Helsinki have recently asserted several times that their goal is still to be admitted to NATO at the same time. Sweden’s Foreign Minister Billström said at Baerbock’s side that the aim is still to become a member as soon as possible. But one must also recognize that the Turkish parliament has a say. From this one concludes that the ratification process depends on a Turkish decision which neither Sweden nor Finland can influence.