Turkey Ends Block On Finland, Sweden NATO Bid

In an unexpected move yesterday, Turkey, Sweden and Finland signed an agreement that would ensure the Nordic countries' application to join NATO would be accepted. All 30 NATO members must agree to an application to join the alliance. The agreement is a blow to Russian thug and war criminal Vladimir Putin, whose aim was to freeze NATO membership, especially after its brutal war of territorial expansion against Ukraine began in February.

At the NATO meeting in Madrid, Turkish President Erdogan announced that Turkey would lift its objections to Sweden's and Finland's joining the alliance after they agreed to crack down on groups that Turkey deems terrorist and to lift an arms embargo against Turkey:

"It means Helsinki and Stockholm can proceed with their application to join the nuclear-armed alliance, cementing what is set to be the biggest shift in European security in decades, as the two, long-neutral Nordic countries seek NATO protection.

'Our foreign ministers signed a trilateral memorandum which confirms that Turkey will ... support the invitation of Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO,' Finnish President Niinisto said in a statement. [snip]

Turkey's main demands, which came as a surprise to NATO allies in late May, were for the Nordic countries to stop supporting Kurdish militant groups present on their territory, and to lift their bans on some sales of arms to Turkey.

[NATO Secretary-General Jens] Stoltenberg said the terms of the deal involved Sweden intensifying work on Turkish extradition requests of suspected militants and amending Swedish and Finnish law to toughen their approach to them.

Stoltenberg said Sweden and Finland would lift their restrictions on selling weapons to Turkey."

The two nations' formal acceptance by the 30 member nations could take up to a year as each country's legislative bodies votes to ratify the agreement. 

(photo: Erdogan, center, flanked by NATO's Stoltenberg, left, and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, and Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, right. Violeta Santos-Moura/Reuters)