Baerbock for rapid NATO northern expansion

During her visit to Finland, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for Finland and Sweden to join NATO quickly. After discussions with her colleague Pekka Haavisto in Helsinki, Baerbock said this must now be implemented “without further delay”.

Admission of both countries “strengthens NATO as an alliance”, which is all the more important in view of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, stressed Baerbock. Sweden and Finland have met all of the alliance’s entry criteria – the NATO partners Turkey and Hungary have also reported this.

NATO northern expansion blocked

Under the impact of the Ukraine war, Finland and Sweden jointly applied for NATO membership in May 2022. All 30 members of the defense alliance must ratify accession. 28 have already done so, except for Hungary and Turkey.

Hungarian objections are not expected, but Turkey has been blocking NATO’s northward expansion for a long time. She justifies her position primarily with the fact that Sweden is not taking sufficient action against terrorist organizations. The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan means above all the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK. The Turkish government was also outraged after right-wing extremists burned the Koran in Sweden in January.

Erdogan had threatened Sweden at the end of January that he would only agree to Finland joining NATO. The government in Helsinki immediately rejected the proposal.

Discussions about tank deliveries

In Baerbock’s talks in Finland and Sweden – she is expected in Stockholm this Tuesday – the planned delivery of Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine should also be an issue. Both countries have such tanks. The federal government is still looking for allies willing to deliver them.

Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Sunday that her government had not yet made a decision on this. Looking at the long Finnish-Russian border, she made it clear that the matter was complicated. Sweden has not yet decided on a main battle tank delivery either.

However, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson does not rule out the possibility that his country will even provide fighter jets to Ukraine at some point. At the moment the question is not relevant for Sweden, he said last week.

lst/se/wa (dpa, afp)