NATO confident of finding consensus on Finland, Sweden membership

BERLIN (Reuters) – The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is confident that it can overcome objections by Turkey and quickly admit Finland and Sweden, its deputy chief said on Sunday, as the alliance prepares for a historic enlargement in the Nordic region prompted by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto confirmed on Sunday that his country would apply for membership, and Sweden is expected to follow suit as public support for membership has grown amid security concerns.

Foreign ministers from NATO’s 30 member states are holding two days of talks this weekend in Berlin that are focused on the two Nordic countries’ membership bids.

On Saturday, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu unexpectedly raised objections, saying it was “unacceptable and outrageous” that the prospective new NATO members supported the outlawed Kurdish militant group PKK.

It was not immediately clear whether discussions between Cavusoglu and several NATO foreign ministers as well as their Finnish and Swedish counterparts later in the evening had yielded any progress in resolving the dispute.

As talks resumed on Sunday, NATO Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana said he was confident of allaying Ankara’s concerns.

“Turkey is an important ally and expressed concerns that are addressed between friends and allies,” Geoana told reporters.

“I am confident if these countries decide to seek membership in NATO we will be able to welcome them, to find all conditions for consensus to be met,” he added.

Many allies at the Berlin meeting backed Finland and Sweden, stressing the need for swift ratification of their membership bids, which typically take up to a year.

“Germany has prepared everything to do a quick ratification process,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters, adding that ministers had agreed at a dinner on Saturday that the momentum should not be lost.

“We must make sure that we will give them security guarantees, there must not be a transition period, a gray zone, where their status is unclear,” she said.

She was referring to the ratification period during which the Nordic countries would not yet be protected by NATO’s Article 5, which guarantees that an attack on one ally is an attack on all.