Despite Turkey’s opposition to its neighbor’s membership application, Finland and Sweden remain interested in joining NATO, according to Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin.
“We have sent a very clear signal and a very clear message to Turkey and also to Hungary… that we want enter NATO together and this is in the interest of everyone,” Marin told the Munich Security Conference.
“We want to join together with Sweden at the same time. It’s not only because we are good neighbours and partners, it’s also to do with very concrete matters — the security planning of NATO,” she said.
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden ended decades of military non-alignment and applied to join the US-led defense alliance.
Turkey and Hungary are still the only two of the alliance’s 30 members to have rejected the two requests by legislative vote.
A new member’s admission requires the consent of all 30 states.
Turkey has indicated that it is prepared to welcome Sweden into the alliance, but not Finland.
