Speaking at the Manama Dialogue conference held in Bahrain's capital city of Manama, Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto noted that Helsinki had already considered joining the alliance.
“Applying for NATO membership was a big, quick, but also natural step for us, because we had a long term partnership with NATO. Finland had been announcing since 2004 something we called a 'NATO option'. We said that if our security environment changes dramatically, we are ready to consider NATO membership. What would be a more dramatic change than the attack of your neighbor on a country of 50 million people?”, the Finnish diplomat said.
Finland formally applied for membership this May, along with Sweden. For both countries to join NATO, the application must be ratified by the parliaments of all 30 member countries, with the approval of Turkey and Hungary still required.
Ankara has accused Sweden of protecting outlawed Kurdish militants as well as supporters of Fethullah Gülen, a US-based preacher wanted over a botched 2016 coup in Turkey, France 24 news outlet reported.
Hungary, on the other hand, has not yet addressed the ratification, even though the proposal has long been before parliament. But the authorities in Budapest said they will ratify the accession before Turkey.
(jh)
Source: IAR
