According to Haavisto, Finland is prepared to provide Turkey with the guarantees required for the country to approve Finland and Sweden in the NATO defense alliance. This involves, for example, following the Kurdish guerrilla group PKK and links to terrorism more closely.
Although the application process is not going to go fast, he flags for:
– A few days ago I said that this is an issue that is discussed for at least several days. Now I can say with caution that this will be discussed for several weeks, says Pekka Haavisto in an interview for EPN Uutiset.
End of June
He talks about a possible solution by the end of June when NATO holds a summit in Madrid.
On Saturday, President Sauli Niinistö spoke with Turkey’s ditto Recep Tayyip Erdogan and then presented Finland’s willingness to fight terrorism and assured that Finland will more closely follow the PKK, which is branded a terrorist in the EU, says Pekka Haavisto.
Cannot extradite PKK members
At the same time, the Foreign Minister emphasizes that Finland cannot extradite PKK members or individuals to Turkey for alleged links to the organization.
In the PKK issue, Turkey is putting more pressure on Sweden, Pekka Haavisto states, noting that the Swedish parliament has members with a Kurdish background. But in the application process, Finland and Sweden continue side by side at the same pace, is his message.