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Finnish government: a decision on NATO soon

In a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Thursday, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said that in a few weeks, Finland’s position on the NATO request will be announced. Swedish writes.

According to the information provided to it Finnish tidningen evening paper The process of applying for NATO membership will begin on April 14, when Prime Minister Sanna Marin and her government will propose an amendment to the Finnish Foreign Ministry.

On Thursday evening, the question of Swedish and Finnish membership was also raised when NATO foreign ministers met in Brussels. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also had a brief meeting with the Finnish foreign minister, according to a person in the US administration to the news agency. Reuters.

But the official made it clear that the decision is up to the two countries.

Jacob Westberg, teacher and a senior lecturer in military sciences at the Swedish National Defense College, are waiting for such an announcement. If the information is correct, it will change the terms of Swedish-Finnish cooperation.

– We have done a large number of defense cooperation with Finland and this is facilitated by the fact that there is no third party. If Finland becomes a member of NATO, this could have consequences for how cooperation is designed, he says.

The government’s position is that applying for NATO membership at the same time as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would pose security risks for Sweden. But the argument that the situation will be further destabilized by a Swedish application is weakened if Finland chooses to submit its application.

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– So, NATO’s expansion in the Baltic region is already on the table. We’ve been talking for a long time about the critical period between announcing that an application has to be submitted until the application is approved. It has been argued that the application should be followed by security guarantees from large countries such as the USA, Great Britain and France, says Jacob Westberg.

Pekka haavisto intygade That NATO member states have promised to support Finland on security matters during the potential application process.

This support in security matters can be crucial for Finland to be able to join the Defense Alliance at all. In general, both Sweden and Finland meet all NATO criteria, explains Jacob Westberg.

– Then you should not have border disputes and do not require such great resources for Russia to create a border dispute in the Gulf of Finland. So there must be NATO units.

Russia halted Georgia’s entry into the defense alliance by creating such a border conflict.

What indicates that NATO will support Finland – as well as Sweden – during the potential application process is that the countries will be important members.

– NATO indicated that it is difficult to plan around Sweden and Finland. So, NATO’s defense planning will be greatly facilitated, and this may also be one of the reasons why Russia is opposed to our joining us, says Jacob Westberg.

According to Iltalehti . information The Riksdag will consider a Finnish application for NATO membership after Easter. They must give the green light before the process begins.

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President Sauli Niinisto and the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Security Policy may decide to apply for NATO membership at the end of April or during the first half of May. But before that happens, the working group made up of party leaders and heads of parliamentary blocs must review parliamentary support on the matter.

The Foreign Minister, Pekka Haavisto, did not confirm the following information.

According to Haavisto, NATO announced that the processing of Finland’s Finnish NATO application will take between four months and a year.