The foreign affairs committees of the Finnish and Swedish parliaments met today in Stockholm. The most burning question in the discussions was NATO membership and whether Finland will advance to membership without Sweden.
STOCKHOLM The Finnish and Swedish foreign affairs committees have met with the chairman in recent years Jussi Halla-ahon (ps.) quite regularly and today the Finns traveled to Stockholm.
At the same time, the defense ministers of the NATO defense alliance are meeting in Brussels. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the beginning of the Brussels meeting that the main thing is not that Finland and Sweden join NATO at the same time, but that both countries join NATO as soon as possible.
After half a day, the joint meeting of the committees in the parliament building ended.
Vice-chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Erkki Tuomioja (sd.) criticized Stoltenberg’s statement.
– I would say that is not a very helpful statement. He should have stuck to the fact that NATO has stated in Madrid that both meet the requirements. It’s a different matter if it happens. I would say that this was not a helpful statement at all.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg commented on Finland and Sweden’s membership process in Brussels.
Was that statement from Stoltenberg a mistake?
– At least in that position, I would not have made such statements. It doesn’t help this process in any way.
According to Tuomioja, Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO path depends in any case on Turkey and Turkey’s and Hungary’s ratifications.
– It is no longer up to Finland, nor Sweden. We stated that we no longer have anything to negotiate with Turkey, we have fulfilled all the conditions. And that is Turkey’s solution.
– And if it doesn’t happen, then it will also be a NATO crisis after that.
Halla-aho would avoid Kremlinological interpretations
The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Jussi-Halla-aho, said he wanted to avoid interpretations between the lines that respect the traditions of Kremlinology.
– I absolutely agree with Stoltenberg that the rapid realization of Finland’s and Sweden’s membership is more important than whether it happens on the same day or on consecutive days.
However, does this mean that it is now more and more likely that Finland’s membership application will be accepted earlier than Sweden’s?
– Actually, that probability depends solely on what Turkey and Hungary intend to do with regard to their ratifications.
– I think it is wise to be prepared for the still unlikely scenario that they would only ratify the membership of the second applicant country but not the other one.
Johansson: Time difference would be a serious situation for Sweden
Morgan Johansson is the vice-chairman of the committee and a social democrat. He was the Minister of Justice in the government that submitted Sweden’s NATO application.
Johansson does not want to speculate about the simultaneous progress of membership applications, because the solution is not now in the hands of Finland or Sweden.
However, in his opinion, the situation would be very serious if Finland advanced to membership, but Sweden was left waiting without a clear timetable for membership.
Why would the situation be serious?
– That would be problematic, because the whole point of simultaneous NATO membership is that we could cooperate even more closely than at present. If simultaneity does not materialize, these plans will fall apart.
– So yes, it would also affect Sweden’s security.
Haavisto does not interpret the situation as having changed
Foreign minister Pekka Haavisto (green) commented on Stoltenberg’s speech in Helsinki.
– Today, the parliament’s foreign affairs committee is visiting Sweden, and it will probably be good to hear about these parliamentarians’ discussions. As far as I know, nothing has changed, but things are now on Turkey’s table. Of course, we aim for both Finland and Sweden to be members of NATO by the time of the summit in Vilnius in July.