NATO leaders decided on Wednesday 29 June at their summit in Madrid to invite Finland and Sweden to become members of the organisation and agreed to sign the accession protocols. These are excepted to be signed very soon.
“The accession of Finland and Sweden will make them safer, NATO stronger, and the Euro-Atlantic area more secure. The security of Finland and Sweden is of direct importance to the Alliance, including during the accession process”, says the Madrid Declaration adopted by the leaders of the 30 Ally countries. Finland and Sweden officially applied on 18 May (see EUROPE 12955/3).
Before the two countries can formally become members of NATO, the parliaments of the Allies will have to ratify their membership. “It always takes some time, but I also expect it to go quite fast, because the Allies are ready to try to make this ratification process happen as quickly as possible”, explained the organisation’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
The day before, after more than three hours of meetings, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson reached an agreement to lift Turkey’s veto on Finland and Sweden’s membership of NATO. This agreement was welcomed by the Allies. Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir called the future membership of the two Nordic countries a “major event in the history of the Alliance”.
In order to allay Turkey’s doubts, the foreign ministers of the three countries signed a memorandum addressing Turkey’s concerns about arms exports and the fight against terrorism.
Cooperation in the fight against terrorism
In concrete terms, Finland and Sweden commit themselves “as prospective NATO Allies, to extend their full support to Turkey” against threats to its national security, as does Ankara reciprocally. “To that effect, Finland and Sweden will not provide support to YPG/PYD, and the organisation described as FETO (Gülen movement, editor’s note) in Turkey”, the document says. These organisations are not recognised as terrorist organisations by the EU.
Stockholm and Helsinki also pledge to prevent the activities of the PKK - recognised as a terrorist organisation by the EU - and all other terrorist organisations and their affiliates, as well as the activities of persons belonging to groups affiliated to and inspired by, or networks linked to, these terrorist organisations. Cooperation with Turkey on this issue will be intensified.
The protocol states that the two Nordic countries will “investigate and interdict any financing and recruitment activities of the PKK and all other terrorist organisations and their extensions, as well affiliates or inspired groups or networks”.
Sweden and Finland will also address Turkey’s “pending deportation or extradition requests of terror suspects expeditiously and thoroughly” and will establish the necessary bilateral legal frameworks to facilitate extradition and security cooperation with Turkey in accordance with the European Convention on Extradition. “It is important that extradition is a standard practice of NATO Allies and other countries in the event of proven problems related, for example, to terrorism or criminal activities”, said Mr Stoltenberg. Ankara asked both countries on Wednesday 29 June to extradite 33 suspected terrorists.
In addition, Ankara, Helsinki and Stockholm have committed themselves to establishing a “joint, structured dialogue and cooperation mechanism” at all levels of government, including between police and intelligence services, in order to strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism, organised crime and other common challenges, as they so decide.
The three countries also confirm that “now there are no national arms embargoes in place between them” while Sweden is in the process of changing its national regulatory framework for arms exports in relation to NATO Allies.
Finally, Finland and Sweden are committed to supporting the fullest possible participation of Turkey and other non-EU Allies in existing and future initiatives of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy, including Turkey’s participation in the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) project on military mobility. The participation of a third country in the PESCO requires the unanimity of the participating countries, including Greece and Cyprus.
See the Memorandum of Understanding: https://aeur.eu/f/2el
See the Madrid Declaration: https://aeur.eu/f/2ee (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Léa Marchal)