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Turkey has finally approved Finland’s application to join NATO, putting an end to months of delays while also continuing to block Sweden from joining the military alliance.
The Turkish Parliament voted unanimously in favor of Finland’s membership on Thursday, clearing the last hurdle in the accession process.
The vote fulfills Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “promise” to allow Finland in the defense alliance. Turkey was the last NATO member to approve Finland’s accession, although Hungary only did so on Monday.
Finland and Sweden had for decades committed to non-alignment with NATO as a way of avoiding provoking Moscow. However, that changed when the Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine and forced the two Scandinavian countries to re-evaluate their neutral status.
An overwhelming majority of NATO members welcomed their applications, approving them within weeks. But two countries – Turkey and Hungary – began to stall the process.
NATO has an open-door policy, meaning that any country can be invited to join if it expresses an interest, as long as it is able and willing to uphold the principles of the bloc’s founding treaty.
