Finland

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country is “not favorable” toward Finland and Sweden joining NATO.

The report does not make recommendations whether Sweden should join NATO or not. At the same time, it lists numerous tactics Russia is likely to take in retaliation. He claimed the action had allowed Greece “to take an attitude against Turkey by taking NATO behind it."

Finland is ready to cope in the event that Russia cuts off its supply of natural gas, the government's emergency preparedness committee said after a meeting ...

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Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday that his government does not support Finland and Sweden joining NATO, claiming the Scandinavian ...

It is not possible for us to be in favor." Why it matters: A formal objection by Turkey would derail Finland and Sweden's expected NATO applications, which must be approved by all 30 NATO allies. Why it matters: Finland's membership in NATO would more than double the length of the alliance's borders with Russia. Sweden is expected to make an announcement on applying to NATO on Sunday. The transformation of Europe's security landscape is a nightmare for Vladimir Putin — but one triggered by his own decision to invade Ukraine. What to watch: Ahead of its likely decision to support a NATO application in the coming days, the Swedish government issued a security analysis finding that NATO membership would reduce the chances of a military conflict in northern Europe What they're saying: "We are following the developments regarding Sweden and Finland, but we are not of a favorable opinion," Erdoğan told reporters in Istanbul, according to AP. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday that his government does not support Finland and Sweden joining NATO, claiming the Scandinavian countries are home to Kurdish "terrorist organizations."

Sweden issued a security report on Friday that said Swedish NATO membership would "have a conflict-preventing effect in northern Europe."

The report also outlined the dangers of accession to NATO, acknowledging that Russia would “react negatively” to any such step. The invasion of Ukraine, which is a NATO partner but not a member, had shown the dangers of remaining outside the alliance’s collective defense structure, it noted. While he stopped short of announcing a veto of any potential membership bid, the Turkish leader accused Nordic countries of harboring “terrorist organizations,” in reference to groups such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is outlawed in Turkey. He added that Greece’s NATO membership had been a “mistake” that should not be repeated and accused the country of bias against Turkey.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has thrown Sweden and Finland's potential NATO membership into doubt, just as both countries are on the cusp of applying ...

Public support for joining the organization in both countries has soared since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. "They are even members of the parliament in some countries," he added. Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said she was very confident that her country's membership bid would receive unanimous backing from NATO members. He also referenced NATO's acceptance of Greece as a member in 1952 as a mistake. Furthermore, Scandinavian countries are guesthouses for terrorist organizations," Erdogan said. NATO ascension for a new member state requires consensus approval from all existing members.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has pushed the two countries to reconsider NATO membership.

Inclusion of Finland and Sweden will transform how it does its military planning in the Nordic, Arctic, and Baltic regions. In the meantime, NATO and its members are offering some assurances during the application period. Both meet the political criteria, as strong, established democracies, and the close cooperation with NATO means they already have a high level of interoperability — military speak for their systems and tactics being in sync. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement Thursday that should Finland apply, “they will be warmly welcomed.” They do military exercises together and share some intelligence; both Sweden and Finland supported NATO’s mission in Afghanistan. And NATO’s open door remained, well, open to Sweden and Finland, but it was not something either had to pursue unless the security situation in Europe drastically shifted. Especially in recent years, Finland and Sweden have become strong partners with NATO — they are basically as close as a country can get to the alliance without formally being in it. Of recent ascensions, it took Montenegro 18 months, but there’s a general expectation that Finland and Sweden will proceed even more rapidly. “It’s still much more an evolution rather than revolution, in a way, the attitude towards NATO,” said Sinikukka Saari, a Leading Researcher on Russia and Foresight at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. That forced Finland to adopt a stance of nonalignment during the Cold War, although with quite a lot of Soviet meddling and domestic political influence. Finland’s resolve is, in some ways, pulling Sweden along with it, which experts said is a bit more politically divided on the issue, and is reckoning more deeply with its longstanding tradition of nonalignment. What happens in Helsinki is being closely watched in Stockholm. Sweden’s parliament issued a report Friday that said joining NATO would “raise the threshold” for military conflict. That swing in public opinion — there is now majority support for joining NATO in both Finland and Sweden — reflected a broader awakening that the status quo with Russia would not hold.

Russian state-owned utility Inter RAO will stop exporting electricity to Finland from Saturday because it has not been paid, the company's Finnish ...

We provide the transfer connection from Russia to Finland," Reima Paivinen, Fingrid's senior-vice president for operations, told Reuters. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that his country is "not favorable" toward Finland and Sweden joining NATO, indicating Turkey could use ...

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Veto-wielding NATO member Turkey is voicing opposition to Sweden and Finland joining the alliance, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan telling ...

The second, Tayyip Erdogan tries to increase the leverage of Turkish bargaining process through this.” “Turkey has very good relations with Russia, and Russia supplies defense systems,” he said. “Because in the past, previous Turkish governments made a mistake about Greece's membership, and you know Greece's current attitude against Turkey.”

If Sweden and Finland join NATO, their membership would mark one of the biggest changes to the alliance in decades.

In a picturesque pine forest some 60 miles north of Helsinki, members of the Finnish Reservist Association crouch behind a wooden bunker barricade, ...

“And the government has to say, ‘Don’t worry, go home – we’ve got this.’” The pictures made it clear that the missiles had a yellow stripe, indicating a “we’re no longer kidding missile” rather than an inert weapon, he notes. At the same time, by Finnish law multistory buildings of a certain height must have basements with reinforced doors and working filtration systems to act as bomb shelters. “Never in our association have we seen anything like this year.” Indeed, though Finnish forces humiliated the Soviet Army in the Winter War, as it came to be known, Finland’s allies did not come to its aid. Finland was ultimately forced into a 1948 pact with Russia and a policy of staying neutral but allowing Moscow to exercise some influence over its affairs. “You don’t want to be left alone if all your friends are joining,” Dr. Fägersten says. That means that there are 900,000 people out of a population of 5.5 million who have received military training. “Now NATO is the only way to go.” The Finns liked to joke that the British prime minister’s words were nice, but they didn’t explode – in other words, they weren’t desperately needed forces or weapons. “They could do anything from blocking our postal deliveries to a nuclear bomb,” Mr. Kettunen says. Helsinki has been on the receiving end of Russian aggression throughout its history.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby on Thursday praised Finland's move towards NATO membership and credited Russian President Vladimir Putin with inadvertently ...

In fact, I mean, we routinely operate and train with the Finns and with the Swedes. So interoperability is just not going to be an issue.” “Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay. “NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s security.

Finland's leaders announced Thursday their intention for the country to join NATO "without delay," a new setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Asked on Wednesday if Finland would provoke Russia by joining NATO, Niinistö said Putin would be to blame. Sweden, influenced by the eagerness and speed of its Finnish neighbors, is also widely expected to signal its intention to join the alliance in the coming days. “My response would be that you caused this. The end to Kyiv's long-standing desire to join NATO and the removal of Western troops in the region were central to Putin's pre-war demands, but Finland joining would double Russia's border with the Transatlantic alliance. Finland has traditionally been militarily neutral and enjoyed good relations with Moscow — but the war in Ukraine has led the country to rethink its security and self-determinism. The Nordic nation, which shares an 810-mile border with Russia, is expected to be given rapid accession to join the alliance and neighboring Sweden looks set to follow with its own bid in the coming days.

The statement of support for NATO from President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin had been expected, after the Finnish government recently ...

It is widely acknowledged among NATO officials that Finland joining the alliance would be a significant boost in countering Russian aggression because of how seriously the country has historically treated its own security. European diplomats and security officials widely assume that Finland could join the alliance quickly once negotiations start, as it has been buying military hardware compatible with its Western allies, including the US, for decades and already meets many of the criteria for membership. Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay.

The statement by the president and prime minister comes a day after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited both Finland and Sweden to sign a military ...

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Sauli Niinisto and Sanna Marin make call after support in country for move trebles since Ukraine war.

Finland’s foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, told the European parliament on Thursday that accession to Nato would strengthen security in the region. It has only been invoked once in the organisation’s history, in response to the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks. Nordic media have previously said the two countries were likely to submit a joint application. Finland must apply for Nato membership as a matter of urgency.” “History being made by our northern neighbours,” she tweeted. A positive decision would then be presented to parliament for approval early next week.

NATO membership would be a historic decision for Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometer border with Russia. Atlantic Council's Northern Europe director ...

There will be no closed door for NATO," she said. And [because of] the ability to plan for Northern Europe's security in a comprehensive manner," said the Atlantic Council's Northern Europe director Anna Weislander. "Finland is already a security provider. "NATO membership would strengthen Finland's security. We have moved military installations… "We have prepared.

Finland's president and prime minister endorsed joining the alliance, another sign of how Russia's invasion has strengthened NATO instead of weakening it.

“This is a war of the pure and the light that exists on this earth, and darkness. And the second is true of Russia: It got stuck in that trap as a result of its flawed, and ultimately incomplete, transition to democracy in the 1990s. Instead of dividing NATO and blocking its growth, the Russian leader has united an alliance that he has described as a threat to his nation. “It looks like they were hiding in my basement and the Russians found them there and killed them,” he said, pointing to a grenade pin and the blasted-off door of a small underground shelter. “Should Finland decide to apply, they would be warmly welcomed into NATO, and the accession process would be smooth and swift,” he said. Speaking in Poland on Tuesday, the bloc’s agriculture commissioner, Janusz Wojciechowski, told reporters that the main solution was to establish “corridors to Baltic Sea ports,” specifically mentioning Poland’s seaside cities of Gdansk and Gdynia. “The problem we are trying to solve is in no way regional or European, but global,” she said on Thursday. “The task before us is gigantesque.” Most of the approximately 15,000 residents who remain in the city are hiding in underground shelters, he added, as Russian artillery has targeted the city in a brutal assault. Mr. Putin has accused the United States and its allies of fighting a “proxy war” by arming Kyiv’s forces. That intention was reiterated during peace talks in late March in Istanbul between Ukraine and Russia, during which Ukrainian officials said their country was ready to declare itself permanently neutral — forsaking the prospect of joining NATO, a key Russian demand. President Vladimir V. Putin’s insistence that he needed to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO appeared to be a pretext for the war. For one thing: NATO, an alliance predicated on the doctrine of mutual defense, would be highly unlikely to admit a country ensnared in war.

Not that Finland necessarily needed such a reminder; the then-Soviet Union invaded Finland about 80 years ago. But that was before Russia had nuclear weapons ...

With Finland and Sweden, the size of NATO countries is only 1.4 times the size of Russia in its entirety. One of the requirements of NATO membership is that nations spend a certain percentage of GDP on their military. When considering the size of the standing military for each country, the ratio is smaller. NATO is not contiguous, so land area is not a particularly useful metric, but aggregating the size of NATO countries relative to Russia is instructive. This doesn’t inherently make war more likely, but Finland’s shift to the West is the sort of change that Russia’s been hoping to prevent. The expansion of NATO over time has been toward Russia’s western edge, with the collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago prompting a number of former Soviet states and Warsaw Pact countries to seek and gain membership in the alliance.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said Russia would explore "retaliatory steps" after Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin and President Sauli Niinisto ...

The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. Public support for joining NATO is also high in Finland and has been growing since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. NATO leaders have said that Finland, which shares an 800-mile border with Russia, will be welcomed by the alliance if it decides to join. Had a phone conversation with President of Finland— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) @niinisto. Commended the readiness of 🇫🇮 to apply for NATO membership. The committee is set to meet Sunday, Agence France Press reported, citing Finnish newspaper Iltalehti. 🇸🇪 will decide after the report from the security policy consultations has been presented. Niinisto and Marin said that Finland’s membership in NATO would strengthen the entire defense alliance. Important message today from 🇫🇮 President— Ann Linde (@AnnLinde) @niinisto& PM @MarinSannaon @NATOmembership. 🇫🇮 is 🇸🇪 closest security & defence partner, and we need to take 🇫🇮 assessments into account. “I am ready to accept Finland’s NATO membership, because it is the will of the Finnish people and the clear majority of the Finnish Parliament,” Andersson said. And 🇺🇦 - 🇫🇮 defense interaction. Their announcement comes one day after Helsinki signed a mutual security agreement with London. “Finland’s accession to NATO will cause serious damage to bilateral Russian-Finnish relations" and the “stability and security” of northern Europe, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday in a statement.

HELSINKI — Nordic governments have set about deepening regional defense cooperation against the backdrop of the very real expectation that non-aligned ...

We are in the process of deepening our operational cooperation that will enable us to improve our interoperability, deterrence and territorial defense,” the statement said. These are some of the benefits of NATO membership if we decide to join,” said Hultqvist. “The Prime Minister and President of Finland have sent a clear message. We hope that the steps at a national level that are still needed to make this decision possible will be taken rapidly over coming days,” the joint statement continued. “Now that the moment of decision-making is near, we state our shared views. Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin issued a joint announcement on Thursday backing NATO membership.

Finland's President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin Thursday expressed their approval for joining NATO, a move that would complete a major ...

Russia’s giant state-owned Gazprom said gas flowing to Europe through Ukraine was down 25% from the day before. Kherson is a Black Sea port with a population of about 300,000 and provides access to fresh water for neighboring Crimea. Russian forces captured it early in the war. The European Union, as part of its announced effort to punish Russia for its 11-week invasion of Ukraine, is looking to end its considerable reliance on Russian energy to heat homes and fuel industries. “Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay. The leaders said they came to their decision after allowing time for Finland’s Parliament and the public to consider the matter, and to consult with NATO and neighboring Sweden. Officials in Sweden are expected to consider their own possible NATO application in the coming days. “NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s security.

WASHINGTON — In embracing Finland's, and soon Sweden's, move to join NATO, President Biden and his Western allies are doubling down on a bet that Russia has ...

The Kremlin said that Finland’s possible accession was a threat and that Russia would “take necessary measures” to protect itself. Ukraine, in contrast, was at the core of the old Soviet Union that Mr. Putin is trying to rebuild, at least in part. It is a debate similar to the one that took place during the Clinton administration when there were warnings about the dangers of NATO expansion. The revelations showed how close to the line Washington was getting in provoking Mr. Putin. That is the long-term concern. The question now is whether expanding NATO risks cementing a new Cold War — and perhaps something worse. Finland’s leaders announced their support for the nation to join the alliance, while Sweden is expected to do the same within days. To Mr. Biden and his aides, the argument for letting Finland and Sweden in, and keeping Ukraine out, is fairly straightforward. The White House welcomed the announcement on Thursday by Finland’s leaders that their country should “apply for NATO membership without delay,” while Swedish leaders were expected to do the same within days. By that, he means staying clear of direct conflict with Mr. Putin’s forces and avoiding doing anything that risks escalation that could quickly turn nuclear. Or is it only solidifying the divide with an isolated, angry, nuclear-armed adversary that is already paranoid about Western “encirclement”? Trying to avoid provoking Mr. Putin, he said, “hasn’t changed Russia’s actions at all.”

“NATO membership would strengthen Finland's security. As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance,” the Finnish President and ...

It’s a defensive alliance that exists to protect the sovereignty of its members—in particular from Russian threats. NATO hasn’t pressed anyone to join—not least Finland, where the public largely opposed NATO membership until Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine this year. But membership in NATO is proving to be the only restraint on the Russian’s expansionist designs. The same crowd that says Ukraine invited an invasion because it wanted to join the EU and NATO will argue that the next enlargement will anger Mr. Putin. No doubt. That purchase is driving military to spending to exceed 2% of gross domestic product, the NATO target. But it still could take NATO’s 30 current members a year or so to ratify the applications.

A general view of the Finnish Parliament during a session in which NATO membership is a topic, at the Parliament in Helsinki, Finland, May 12. Photo: mauri ...

It’s a defensive alliance that exists to protect the sovereignty of its members—in particular from Russian threats. NATO hasn’t pressed anyone to join—not least Finland, where the public largely opposed NATO membership until Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine this year. But membership in NATO is proving to be the only restraint on the Russian’s expansionist designs. The same crowd that says Ukraine invited an invasion because it wanted to join the EU and NATO will argue that the next enlargement will anger Mr. Putin. No doubt. That purchase is driving military to spending to exceed 2% of gross domestic product, the NATO target. But it still could take NATO’s 30 current members a year or so to ratify the applications.