HELSINKI (AP) – Finland’s foreign minister on Tuesday suggested the country could consider joining NATO without neighboring Sweden if Turkey continues to block their joint bid to join the military alliance.
Pekka Haavisto later backed down, but his comments marked the first time a senior government official in either Nordic country appeared to express doubts about becoming NATO members together at a time when the alliance is trying to Russian war in Ukraine to present a united front.
Sweden and Finland hastily applied for NATO membership after Moscow’s invasion, abandoning longstanding non-aligned policies. Her accession will require approval from all existing NATO members, including Turkey, which has so far blocked enlargement and says Sweden in particular must crack down on exiled Kurdish militants and their sympathizers.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan again warned Sweden not to expect support for its proposal after an anti-Islam activist and pro-Kurdish groups protested in Stockholm over the weekend.
Asked a day later whether it still made sense for Finland to proceed jointly with the Swedes, Haavisto told YLE that his country would have to “evaluate the situation if it turns out that Sweden’s application is lagging for a long time”.
Haavisto later told reporters in Parliament that his comment was “imprecise” and that Finland’s aspiration to join NATO with Sweden remained unchanged.
He said he spoke to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who told Haavisto that the military bloc would like to see both nations join at the same time.
“But of course there were concerns within NATO about how the (recent) incidents in Sweden will affect the schedule,” Haavisto said.
So far, Sweden and Finland had committed to joining the alliance together.
“This is the first crack in what has been quite an impressive unity between Sweden and Finland,” said Paul Levin, director of the Institute of Turkic Studies at Stockholm University. “Finland is currently something of an innocent victim of the continued provocations by Swedish groups critical of NATO accession, protected by Sweden’s very liberal free speech laws. If Turkey continues to block accession, I suspect Finland will have to go it alone at some point.”
Matti Pesu, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, said Haavisto’s comment was “the first public signal that there is a plan B in case Sweden’s bid for NATO membership freezes for an extended period”.
He stressed that Finland still prioritizes joining the alliance together with Sweden.
“Finland should consider other alternatives only if there is a serious possibility of a significant delay in Sweden’s NATO bid, and only if NATO allies welcome Finland’s entry without Sweden,” he said.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he “understands the frustration that many in Finland feel” because they have not yet been accepted into the alliance, but called for calm and urged Swedes opposed to NATO membership to recognize “the seriousness” of the security situation.
“There are forces both inside Sweden and outside Sweden that want to prevent Sweden from becoming a NATO member,” he told reporters in Stockholm. “And against this background, we should see that there are provocateurs who want to damage Sweden’s relations with other countries, resulting in a delay in Sweden’s NATO membership.”
In a memorandum of understanding signed by the three countries at a NATO summit last year, Sweden and Finland pledged not to support Kurdish militant groups and lift arms embargoes imposed on Turkey after its 2019 invasion of northern Syria.
Pro-Kurdish and anti-Turkish demonstrations in Stockholm have complicated the process. On Saturday, a far-right activist from Denmark held a protest in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, where he burned the Koran, Islam’s holy book. A separate pro-Kurdish demonstration was held later on Saturday in the Swedish capital.
The Swedish government has sought to distance itself from the demonstrations while insisting such protests are protected by freedom of expression.
“It’s perfectly legal to provoke if you want to. But it can also have consequences,” said Kristersson.
Turkey reacted angrily to the protests, canceling a planned visit by Sweden’s defense minister to Ankara. Protests took place outside Swedish diplomatic missions in Turkey, leading to the Swedish embassy in Ankara closing its doors to the public on Tuesday.
Erdogan has criticized the Swedish authorities for allowing the Koran burning demonstration.
“It is clear that those who have allowed such meanness in front of our embassy can no longer expect handouts from us for their application for NATO membership,” he said.
He also criticized the pro-Kurdish demonstration and accused Sweden of “allowing terrorist organizations to rampage in its avenues and streets”. He said if Sweden doesn’t show respect to Turkey or to Muslims, then “they won’t see any support from us on the NATO issue.
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, who visited Ukraine on Tuesday, said he does not expect any progress on the issue before Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections, which are due to be held on March 14.
Turkey and Hungary are the only NATO members yet to ratify the accession of Finland and Sweden.
___ Karl Ritter got in touch from Stockholm. Jan M. Olsen contributed to this report from Copenhagen, Denmark.