STOCKHOLM Kungsholmen is a lively district in Stockholm. It is affluent, like all the city center neighborhoods, but not in the same way as upper class as Östermalm or popular with the cultural crowd like Söder.
On a normal weekday, during lunchtime, you can easily get answers about the NATO situation that has arisen. Kungsholmen has a prime minister in good memory Sanna Marini a quick visit to Stockholm and a message that Finland is not going to leave Sweden, but will join NATO hand in hand.
On the other hand Opinion survey commissioned by Ilta-Sanomi (you will switch to another service) the final result is also known: the majority of Finns are ready to join NATO without Sweden.
by Wilhelm Westblad in my opinion, the Finns’ position is completely understandable.
– We have a good cooperation with Finland in any case, but if the Finns consider it necessary to join, then that is completely understandable.
with PA Svensson is another income angle. He is not at all sure that the president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would also accept Finland as a member.
– The most interesting question is whether he would accept Finland as well. I’m not at all sure, because this is how he manages to keep the home crowd happy and the USA in his grip. Turkey has a lot to win in this game, Svensson reasons.
Johan Söderström interprets that the US’s patience with Turkey is running out.
– The USA has already told Erdoğan: let Finland and Sweden join NATO if you want fighter jets from us. Isn’t that a pretty good touch, Söderström asks.
He is also pinning his hopes on the United States Cecilia Öhman.
– With the help of the United States, this will be possible, and of course with the help of other NATO countries. Freedom of speech is a human right and it is important that we defend it, Öhman emphasizes.
Stefan from Laurin it is strange that Turkey has such a large influence in the matter at all. He suspects that Turkey thinks that Sweden’s social democrats have been too understanding towards the Kurdish workers’ party, the PKK.
He also believes that Sweden’s and Finland’s membership will be resolved with US assistance.
In Sweden, support for NATO membership is stronger than ever before. Swedish public broadcasting company the measurement made by SVT in January (you will switch to another service) according to 63 percent of Swedes support membership, 15 percent cannot say and 22 percent oppose membership.
One of the opponents is Huizi Ye.
– I think Sweden should not join NATO. I think it only accelerates conflicts between countries. But I can’t say how this will turn out.
The researcher believes that the memberships will be realized in the summer
Cozy apartments have been built on the eaves of old houses in Kungsholmen, one of which is opened by a researcher Jan Hallenberg a dachshund puppy in the family’s daycare in his arms.
Hallenberg interprets the NATO process almost weekly in TV news broadcasts. He is a retired research director and current senior expert at the Swedish Foreign Policy Institute.
Hallenberg is in this situation because NATO made him a solution at last summer’s Madrid summit, which has now proven to be a mistake. In order to move forward in Madrid, the negotiations on the membership of Finland and Sweden were moved to tripartite negotiations with Turkey.
– In such negotiation situations, it is assumed that the same rules are used, but the Turkish president has his own rules, which he uses to make the most of the situation.
According to Hallenberg, the decision-makers in Madrid did not remember well enough the actions of Turkey in the past years, for example, how Turkey once objected to the Danish Anders Fogh Rasmussen election as Secretary General of NATO.
No side dishes to the tripartite protocol
In Hallenberg’s opinion, until the very last few weeks, Swedish ministers have tried too hard to understand Erdoğan’s demands.
Hallenberg thanks the Minister of Defense Pål Jonson’s a fresh answer to Erdoğan, who demanded a law prohibiting the burning of Korans in Sweden. According to Jonson, there is no mention of the Korans in the tripartite document, and the document is the one on which the negotiations are based.
According to Hallenberg, it is expected that Turkey will present new conditions to Sweden throughout the spring, but he hopes that the government will keep its new line and appeal to the existing tripartite agreement.
He believes that the membership of Sweden and Finland can be secured at the NATO summit in July, but that requires the help of the big NATO countries.
Hallenberg guesses that Finland and Sweden are already getting it behind the scenes.