Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/HELSINKI: Finnish parliamentary groups are expected to discuss on Friday when to ratify the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)’s founding treaties, which may lead the country to proceed with membership ahead of Sweden, amid growing support among the Finnish people to go it alone.
The two Nordic nations sought NATO membership shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine the previous year. Most member-states have ratified the application, but Turkey has yet to approved it.
The previous week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said their position on Finland was favourable but not positive on Sweden.
Turkey’s differing views on Swedish and Finnish memberships pressure Finland leaders to push ahead. 53% of Finns polled on February 2 for the daily Ilta-Sanomat said they didn’t want Finland to wait for Sweden. Some 28% said it should.
NATO’s founding treaties
On Friday, parliamentary groups in Finland could decide whether parliament should ratify NATO’s founding treaties before it goes into recess on March 3, before a parliamentary election on April 2.
If parliament on a later date votes in favor of approving the treaties, as it is expected to do, the president proceed with the application within three months and as soon as all existing NATO members have ratified Finland’s bid, which could effectively lead to proceeding with the bloc’s membership without Sweden.
For that to happen, Hungary and Turkey need to ratify Finland’s membership first and NATO invites Finland as a member.
Tuomas Poysti, Finland’s Chancellor of Justice, told Ilta-Sanomat that the process would leave Finland some room to wait for Sweden if need be, but not endlessly.
Officially, Finland reaffirmed time and time again that it wants to join NATO with Sweden.
