Speaking to a press briefing after a meeting with Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Helsinki on Sunday, Marin also stated that Finland has made decisions to deliver a military aid package to Ukraine. “This will be the largest delivery to date, worth 55 million euros, and there will be more”, Marin announced.
She added that Russia cannot “violate international law with complete impunity” and must be held accountable. “We must make them pay for the destruction they have caused; the atrocities and crimes Russia is committing cannot go unpunished,” Marin said.
The Finnish prime minister pointed out that the talks with her Polish counterpart included Sweden and Finland joining NATO. “Poland has been very helpful in this process; it has been characterized by leadership towards others, although some issues remain to be resolved”, according to Marin.
Finland and Sweden officially applied for NATO membership in May. For both countries to join the alliance, the application must be ratified by the parliaments of all 30 member countries, with the approval of Turkey and Hungary still required.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has indicated that the issue of NATO accession for the two Nordic countries will be raised at the Visegrad Group summit due this month.
Morawiecki stated that “together with our friends from Slovakia and the Czech Republic” he intends to ask Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán to quickly ratify the protocols of Finland and Sweden. “We believe it's critically important to increase the security of the eastern flank of NATO and our region”, Morawiecki added.
According to Marin, Budapest announced the ratification of accession later this year. “We are also discussing with Turkey, which has said publicly that they don’t have that many issues with Finland, but some concerns when it comes to Sweden. But from our perspective, it's very important that we will enter NATO together”, Finland’s chief diplomat added.
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