Barely a year after negotiations on Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership began, Finland looks set to join in the near future. Sweden’s application, however, has not progressed as far. The brake has been Turkey, which does not want to ratify the application before Sweden meets the country’s requirements.
Eva Biaudet, member of the Swedish People’s Party in Finland, tells the Foreign Office that the problems that have arisen are about Turkey, not about what Finland and Sweden are doing. But Finland has also had a different attitude towards the Turkish demands than Sweden, she believes.
– Here in Finland, you feel that Sweden got nervous in some way. It was thought that it might help if you sounded like you listened a lot to Turkey. Finland’s view is that it really has nothing to do with what we do. We think we have met all the requirements and criteria and therefore it is in everyone’s interest to let us in.
“Not the first time a large country tries to pressure”
Biaudet says that it may also have helped Finland to share a border with Russia.
– We are used to having a neighbor with whom you need to think about how to behave. It is not the first time a large and powerful country has tried to pressure us.
Regardless of how things go with NATO membership, she hopes that Sweden and Finland will continue to cooperate in the future.
– We have now shown that it is possible. It is a given that we will continue to cooperate in defence. Equality issues and human rights issues can also be pursued together in, for example, the EU.
See more about Sweden and Finland’s relationship during the NATO negotiations in Foreign Office: Finnish betrayal at SVT Play.