Sweden’s NATO Bid Faces Turkish Headwind, Finland Says No Hurry to Join Military Alliance

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his ruling party legislators in Ankara, Turkey, on May 18, 2022. Turkish Presidency via AP Photo

Turkey is resisting Sweden’s push to join NATO due to disagreement on extradition requests between the two nations, while Finland insists that it will only join the military alliance together with Sweden.

“Turkey both confirms that we have done what we said we would do, but they also say that they want things that we cannot or do not want to give them,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said during a security conference in Sweden, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Finland and Sweden had signed a three-way agreement in June 2022 with Turkey that was aimed at overcoming the latter’s objections to admitting the Nordic nations into NATO.

Turkey had accused the countries of harboring militants, including those from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the Ankara government, the United States, and the European Union.

In the three-way agreement, Sweden and Finland agreed to address the extradition requests made by Turkey but only within the framework of their own laws. Since the deal was signed, Ankara has insisted that Sweden hasn’t done enough to meet its demands, thus putting on hold the issue of NATO admission.

“From time to time, Turkey mentions individuals that they want to see extradited from Sweden. My reply is that those issues are handled according to Swedish law. Swedish citizens will never be extradited to another country at all,” Kristersson said.

“There are a lot of factors at play here, domestic political factors as well as Sweden’s ability to prove that we’re serious about what we’ve said.”

Finland and NATO

Meanwhile, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said his country isn’t in a such hurry to join NATO that it’s unable to wait for Sweden.

“We submitted the NATO membership application together, [and] we will also complete the process together,” Haavisto said during the security seminar in Sweden, according to public service producer YLE.

Both countries submitted their NATO applications in May 2022. Turkey is one of the two nations that has yet to ratify Sweden’s and Finland’s accession to NATO, with Hungary being the second country.

Joining NATO will not only strengthen the military alliance but will also boost the security of the entire region, the minister said, while adding that the ongoing war in Ukraine might get prolonged.

“During uncertain times, it is important to have good friends. I am sure that our centuries-old friendship with Sweden will continue for an equally long time in the future,” Haavisto stated. Before Russia took control of Finland in 1809, the region was under the rule of Sweden for centuries.

Boosting NATO

The addition of Finland and Sweden will strengthen NATO, according to a commentary in The Epoch Times by independent international security analyst Richard A. Bitzinger. It “greatly shores up” the military alliance’s northern flank, which has always been a weakness in the organization’s defenses.

The addition of these two nations will move NATO’s integrated air and missile defenses hundreds of miles east toward the Russian border, Bitzinger points out.

“Ground-based radar, airborne early warning, and command aircraft (such as Sweden’s Erieye), and maritime patrol planes and ships greatly expand and extend further eastward the West’s capacities for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR),” he wrote.

“In practically one fell swoop, Putin has created a nightmare scenario. He now has to deal with the prospect of NATO sharing an additional 830 miles of border with Russia.”

Together, Finland and Sweden will bring in more than 2,000 armored vehicles, around 370 main battle tanks, more than 160 modern fighter jets, 15 corvettes, 12 missile-patrol boats, and five submarines to NATO.