Turkiye president Erodgan ratifies Finland's NATO application

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkiye said Friday that his government would move forward with ratifying Finlands NATO application paving the way for the country to join the military bloc ahead of SwedenThe breakthrough came as Finnish President Sauli Niinisto was in Ankara to meet with ErdoganBoth Finland and Sweden applied to become NATO members 10 months ago in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine abandoning decades of nonalignmentNATO requires the unanimous approval of its 30 existing members to expand and Turkiye and Hungary are the only countries that have not yet ratified the Nordic nations bidsThe Turkish government accused both Sweden and Finland of being too soft on groups that it deems to be terror organisations but expressed more reservations about SwedenldquoWhen it comes to fulfilling its pledges in the trilateral memorandum of understanding we have seen that Finland has taken authentic and concrete stepsrdquo Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara following his meeting with NiinistoAlso read Turkiye Egypt scramble to mend relations damaged in wake of 2011 Arab Spring Cavusoglu to visit CairoldquoThis sensitivity for our countrys security and based on the progress that has been made in the protocol for Finlands accession to NATO we have decided to initiate the ratification process in our parliamentrdquo the president addedWith Erdogans agreement Finlands application can now go to the Turkish parliament where the presidents party and its allies hold a majority Ratification is expected before Turkey holds its presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for May 14Erdogan suggested Wednesday that his country might take up Finlands accession following Niinistos tripTurkiye Finland and Sweden signed an agreement in June of last year to resolve differences over the Nordic states membershipThe document included clauses addressing Ankaras claims that Stockholm and Helsinki did not take seriously enough its concerns with those it considers terrorists particularly supporters of Kurdish militants who have waged a 39year insurgency in Turkey and people Ankara associates with a 2016 coup attemptA series of separate demonstrations in Stockholm including a protest by an antiIslam activist who burned the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy also angered Turkish officialsHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and lawmakers have repeatedly promised to ratify the two countrys NATO membership applicationsBut the countrys parliament has repeatedly postponed a ratification vote and hasnt given a firm date on when the vote would take placeErdogan on Wednesday suggested that his country may soon agree to Finlands application to join NATOTurkish officials previously said that Finland joining ahead of Sweden was a more likely outcomeNiinisto arrived in Turkiye on Thursday and toured areas affected by a magnitude 78 earthquake that killed more than 52000 people in Turkiye and Syria last monthldquoI have known Erdogan for a long time I am sure he has important messagesrdquo Niinisto said Thursday while visiting Kahramanmaras one of the provinces worsthit by the Feb 6 earthquakeBefore leaving Helsinki Niinisto said Turkish officials had requested his presence in Ankara to announce Turkiyes decision on the Finnish bidHe also stressed his support for Swedens swift admission and in a Twitter post said he had had a ldquogood conversationrdquo with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson prior to his Turkey tripKristersson said Sweden hoped for ldquoa rapid ratification processrdquo after Turkiyes May 14 presidential and parliamentary electionsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever