Several US senators consider Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO ratification as a condition for Turkish and US fighter jet sales. Niinistö said in Washington that the matter does not belong to Finland, writes US correspondent Iida Tikka.
WASHINGTON. Finland’s NATO membership is the President of the United States Joe Biden a matter of the heart – there was evidence of that again on Thursday.
President Sauli Niinistön Washington’s visit started with a surprise visit to the White House. Biden had made time for the meeting, which was originally supposed to be only between Niinistö and Biden’s security policy advisor by Jake Sullivan inter.
Later in the evening, Niinistö said at a press conference that he had time to talk with Biden in peace. According to Niinistö, Biden “strongly pushed forward” in the NATO process and shared Finland’s hope that NATO membership would be secured before the July summit in Vilnius.
Niinistö did not comment on whether the encouragement can be expected to turn into concrete actions. However, there is a strong bet among Washington’s security policy elite.
The Biden administration has repeatedly expressed its support for Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership.
Just as repeatedly, the administration has also avoided questions about how the United States, as NATO’s most significant country, could avert the slow-moving process.
However, on the streets of Washington and in the corridors of the Capitol, both experts and politicians have connected the planned F16 fighter jet sales between Turkey and the United States and the NATO negotiations. The Biden administration has advocated for the deals, but they have not yet been fully approved.
Considering this, it was particularly interesting that Niinistö also met the chairman of the US Foreign Affairs Committee, Democratic Senator By Bob Menendez. Menendez has vowed to block fighter jet deals with Turkey if the country does not improve its human rights record and stop harassing Greece.
Menendez alone will not decide whether fighter jet deals can go forward. In practice, Congress can block fighter jet deals probably only if a majority of both the House and Senate oppose them. So far, the presidential administration does not seem to want to publicly fight against a prominent senator of his own party and therefore has not tried to force deals through.
In his press conference, however, Niinistö wanted to immediately shoot down all thoughts that Finland had discussed fighter jet sales with the US political leadership.
– The United States supports our cause as much as it can, but will certainly keep aside the issues that are bilateral with Turkey from their point of view, Niinistö said, referring to the fighter jet deals.
– They don’t [hävittäjäkaupat] are elements of Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership, I think this is also the clear position of the United States.
However, that is not quite true, which Niinistö himself seemed to notice later during his press conference.
– Some members of the US House of Representatives have indeed sent petitions and to some extent tied it to the NATO membership of Finland and Sweden, but that was their opinion, he said.
In his comment, Niinistö referred to a letter that a number of senators have sent to Biden (you go to another service). In the letter, 25 senators demand that Turkey’s delay in ratifying Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO memberships be taken into account, for example, in the passage of fighter jet sales.
– Congress can consider fighter jet sales when Turkey has ratified Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO memberships, the letter states.
In practice, therefore, at least a quarter of the US Senate believes that fighter jet sales should be tied directly to the ongoing NATO negotiations. Several members of the US Foreign Affairs Committee are also among the senators who signed the letter.
Niinistö is probably aware of this.
However, it is true that from Finland’s point of view it is a matter between Turkey and the United States, which Finland cannot or even does not want to influence while our political leadership is walking along the NATO path that seems like a trapeze rope. Especially when the tripartite NATO negotiations started again in a positive spirit in Brussels on Thursday.
The situation between Turkey and the United States resembles a staring contest, where the other has to blink first. If Turkey does not trust that the fighter jet deals will take place, is the country ready to ratify Finland and Sweden? And does the United States trust that the NATO path will open if fighter jet sales are allowed?