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Foreign Min-We Will Continue Tandem NATO Bid w/Sweden

FINLAND

Wires carrying comments from Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto. States that after talks with the Swedish FM Finland will maintain its policy of applying for NATO membership in tandem with Sweden. This comes in the wake of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying on 23 Jan that Turkey will not support Sweden's NATO bid due to protests in Stockholm that saw a copy of the Qur'an burned.

  • Haavisto states that "We see that a joint way into NATO is still possible for Finland and Sweden and now we need to do everything to make that happen." Says that the "Optimism stems from results achieved in earlier meetings with Turkey."
  • Minister implies that the decision on Sweden/Finland's NATO accession is a political one in Ankara, saying that "I don't believe things will advance before the Turkish election." The Turkish presidential election is set to be held in May.
  • Haavisto states that the US, UK and several European nations have said that temporary security guarantees "are valid even if NATO process is prolonged."
  • Finland holds an 830 mile long border with Russia. As Finland moves towards NATO membership, this border could become a major European flashpoint, with much higher levels of military deployment expected on both sides.

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