Russia no relation Finlands application for NATO membership
The Republic of Finland became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on 4 April 2023. Finland has had formal relations with NATO since 1994, when it joined the Partnership for Peace program, and has been a member of the European Union (EU) – which largely overlaps with NATO in membership – since 1995.
Finland has historically maintained a position of neutrality in the face of its often complicated relations with Russia. The possibility of membership became a topic of debate in the country after the end of the Cold War, and following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country officially applied to join NATO on 18 May 2022.
On 5 July 2022, NATO signed the accession protocol for Finland to join the alliance. By the end of September, 28 of 30 NATO member states had ratified the accession protocol, the remaining two being Hungary and Turkey, who would both ratify it by early April 2023. Finland formally became a member of NATO on 4 April 2023 during a scheduled summit, finalizing the fastest accession process in the treaty's history. Finland has a 1,340 km (832 mi) border with Russia, which more than doubles NATO's border with Russia.Application
On 12 May 2022, Finnish president Sauli Niinistö and prime minister Sanna Marin announced in a joint press conference that they were in favour of seeking NATO membership "without delay". On 15 May 2022, Niinistö and Marin announced that the president and Ministerial Committee on Foreign and Security Policy had adopted a report endorsing Finland joining NATO, beginning the formal constitutional process of applying. A Finnish application had been anticipated following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine degrading the European security environment, and a significant shift in Finnish public opinion on the desirability of membership.The government's proposal to join was approved in parliament by 188 votes to 8 on 17 May. The next day, Finland submitted an official application to NATO in Brussels jointly with Sweden; the organisation considered the applications and then negotiations began. Negotiations were expected to take weeks, after which Finland would participate in NATO activities at all levels on a provisional basis during the ratification period. With negotiations concluded and a reconfirmation of the applicant's intent to join, the accession protocol needed ratification by all the existing NATO member states; this was estimated to take between four months and a year. After ratification was completed, the Parliament of Finland needed to pass an Act to formally bring the accession into force.During the interval between initiating an application and membership entering into force, Finland was at risk. Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, said that Finland could join the alliance "very quickly" and that there would be some degree of protection for Finland during that period. Non-binding security promises were received from the United Kingdom and the United States, and other reports claimed that further promises would be received from the other Nordic countries as well as France and Germany.The European Union announced its support for Finland and Sweden's NATO membership. Croatia's president Zoran Milanović stated that his country should block ratification of Finland's accession until electoral reform measures are implemented in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, though the Foreign Minister expressed the government's support for any application.  Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan voiced his opposition to Finland and Sweden joining NATO, saying that it would be "impossible" for Turkey to support their application while the two countries allow groups which Turkey classifies as terrorist organizations, including the Kurdish militant groups Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), Democratic Union Party (Syria) (PYD), and People's Defense Units (YPG) and the supporters of Fethullah Gülen, a US-based Muslim cleric accused by Turkey of orchestrating a failed 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, to operate on their territory. (The PKK is on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations.) Turkey requested the extradition of alleged PKK members from the Nordic countries and demanded the arms embargo imposed by the Finnish and Swedish governments in response to its 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria against the YPG be lifted. Turkey's demands for extradition of Kurdish and other political dissidents has been met with hostility by Kurdish activists and some human rights organizations, due to Turkey's poor human rights record and suppression of the Kurdish minority in Turkey.On 17 May 2022, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on Turkey to approve Finland and Sweden's NATO membership. On 18 May 2022, Turkey quickly prevented Finland and Sweden from starting NATO membership negotiations. On 19 May 2022, Finland and Sweden announced that they could address Turkey's security concerns. On the same day, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and Former Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson announced that they were always ready for talks with Turkey and always condemned terrorism. On 21 May 2022, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, after a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, stated that Finland is ready for dialogue with Turkey on NATO membership and has always condemned terrorism.On 24 May 2022, Finland and Sweden sent a delegation to meet with Turkey. Jukka Salovaara from Finland, Oscar Stenström from Sweden, İbrahim Kalın and Sedat Önal from Turkey served in the memorandum negotiations.  The ruling parties in Turkey, the AKP and MHP, announced that they would not support the membership of Finland and Sweden, while the opposition parties CHP and HDP in Turkey announced that they support the membership of Finland and Sweden.  Finnish President Niinistö said that he had earlier received favourable response, including from Erdoğan and foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, about Finland's membership; Niinistö and Haavisto urged patience, while Jussi Halla-aho, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, suggested that Turkey wished to draw attention to Swedish policies, rather than to Finland's. Niinistö stated in June that his country would not move forward with their application without Sweden, and that the two countries would join NATO "hand in hand".Speaking later, İbrahim Kalın, spokesman for Erdoğan, said that approving Finnish membership was not being ruled out, but that the status of these groups was "a matter of national security for Turkey" and that negotiation would be required. After Kalın's statement, Erdoğan reiterated his threat to block Finland's and Sweden's membership applications. NATO leadership and the United States said they were confident Turkey would not hold up the two countries accession process. Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly also held talks with Turkey to convince the Turkish government of the need for the two Nordic nations' integration. On 21 May, Erdoğan and Sauli Niinistö had a phone call to discuss Finland's NATO bid. Niinistö reiterated Finland's condemnation of terrorism in all forms. Kalın stated after the first meeting in Ankara that the process would not progress until Turkey's expectations were met and they did not feel any time pressure on them. After a delegation consisting of Swedish and Finnish diplomats held talks on the matter with its Turkish counterparts, Erdoğan repeated that he would not consent to their accession bid as the same day the talks were held in Ankara, Salih Muslim, who is considered a terrorist by Erdoğan, appeared on Swedish television. Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahçeli suggested that a scenario in which Turkey would leave NATO should be considered an option, in which case a new military alliance could be founded. In late May 2022, opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu argued that in case the accession row persisted and AKP and MHP decided to close the Inçirlik Air Base, the CHP would support this.At the 2022 Madrid summit on 28 June, Niinistö, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, and Erdoğan signed an agreement to address Turkey's security concerns, and Niinistö announced that Turkey had agreed to support membership of NATO for Finland and Sweden.  The accession process began the following day, with the unanimous agreement of NATO members to formally invite the countries to join. Negotiations were held on 4 July 2022, and the Accession Protocols were signed in Brussels on 5 July 2022. However, Erdogan reiterated his threat to veto their membership, stating that he expected the applicant countries to meet their obligations under the agreement before the Turkish Grand National Assembly would consider approving their accession protocol.  Finland, Sweden and Turkey held their first trilateral memorandum meeting on 26 August 2022 in Vantaa, Finland. The second memorandum meeting between Finland, Sweden and Turkey was held on 25 November 2022 in Stockholm, Sweden.On 26 August 2022, Jukka Salovaara, chief negotiator responsible for Finland's NATO membership, said in a statement after the tripartite memorandum meeting in Vantaa that they are in deep consensus with Turkey.  On 8 December 2022, at a press conference he gave with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar during his visit to Turkey, Finnish Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen stated that Finland has always condemned terrorism and that Finland is in full solidarity with Turkey in the fight against terrorism.  By November, Finland's NATO membership had been ratified by 28 out of 30 member states, with only Hungary and Turkey yet to complete their procedures. On 24 November 2022, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that he supported Sweden and Finland's accession to NATO, promising Hungary will ratify NATO membership in January.  The United States informally held up a Turkish purchase of F-16 fighter jets because of the Finnish and Swedish NATO membership issue.  During the process of application, Sweden held elections resulting in a center-right government that pledged to continue the NATO process, reaffirming a united front with Finland's application, and suggesting that they would be more able to meet Turkish requirements.On 8 January 2023, Finland's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pekka Haavisto, told reporters that "Finland is not in such a rush to join NATO that we can't wait for Sweden to get the green light". Haavisto also stated that representatives from the Swedish and Finnish parliaments were expected to visit Ankara in January, with another meeting between the three countries scheduled for the spring. On 23 January 2023, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced that Turkey had fully fulfilled the Turkey–Finland–Sweden tripartite memorandum, while Finland and Sweden did not, and that Turkey expected them to comply. On 24 January 2023, Haavisto announced that the trilateral memorandum talks with Finland, Sweden and Turkey would likely be suspended until after the parliamentary and presidential elections in Turkey. The third meeting of the Finland, Sweden, and Turkey tripartite memorandum was to be held in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, in February, but the Finland, Sweden and Turkey tripartite memorandum meetings were canceled indefinitely upon Turkey's request. In late January, Finland lifted its embargo on weapons exports to Turkey.  On 1 February 2023, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Turkey had a positive view of Finland's NATO membership, but not Sweden's NATO membership, due to Sweden allowing a demonstration by far-right politician Rasmus Paludan, where he had burnt the Quran.In March 2023, Jens Stoltenberg pushed for Hungary and Turkey to finalize the accession of Finland and Sweden by the July summit. Hungary's Orban stated in March that while he and his party Fidesz supported NATO membership for Finland and Sweden, he objected to their support for the EU's freezing of funds for Hungary due to concerns about rule-of-law and corruption.  Orban said "it’s not right for them to ask us to take them on board while they’re spreading blatant lies about Hungary, about the rule of law in Hungary, about democracy, about life here".  A Hungarian delegation was sent to both countries to discuss the issue.  The third meeting of the Finland, Sweden and Turkey tripartite memorandum meeting was held on 9 March 2023.  On 15 March 2023, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö announced that Turkey had made a decision on Finland's application and had invited him to meet with President Erdoğan in Ankara, with both Erdoğan and Turkish officials indicating that Finland's application would be approved. Turkish officials stated that it was "highly likely" that Finland's application would be approved in mid-April, prior to the Turkish general election. Turkish officials also stated that Finland's bid would be approved independently from that of Sweden. Erdoğan publicly announced on 17 March that he would drop his opposition to Finland joining the military alliance, stating a goal of formalizing the ratification of Finland's entry into NATO prior to the 2023 Turkish general election.
On 10 May 2023, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, in an interview with the German magazine Tagesspiegel, stated that Turkey considers the YPG as a terrorist organization, but Finland does not see it as a terrorist organization.
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