By Nazli Yuzbasioglu
ANTALYA, Turkiye (AA) - Finland is not applying for NATO membership but instead, a close partnership with the military alliance, the country’s foreign minister told Anadolu Agency.
Pekka Haavisto made the remarks on the sidelines of last week’s Antalya Diplomacy Forum, of which Anadolu Agency is the global communications partner.
Asked about discussions over Finland joining NATO, especially amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, Haavisto answered: “On our white paper on security policy, which has been adopted by parliament as well, it states that we keep the NATO option and with respect to NATO's open-door policy very much.”
“Now during the last week, the big change in Finland has been that we have first time opinion polls in which the majority of the Finnish citizens are in favor of NATO partnership,” he said, adding that this has triggered political debate.
A mid-March poll by Finnish state television Yle found for the first time a majority of Finns saying yes to joining NATO, with 62%. Before Russia’s war on Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, polls in Finland showed most opposing membership in the alliance.
“But of course, it's a parliamentary process on the Finnish side to discuss these items and then it's up of course to also the NATO countries then if one day Finland will send an application,” Haavisto told Anadolu Agency.
“But we can say that discussion is ongoing. But of course, currently, the decided line is we maintain, we are not a member, we are not applying for membership but we are in a close partnership with NATO,” he stressed.
Russia has declared firm opposition to countries along its borders joining NATO, and made this an issue in its war on Ukraine. Russia and Finland share a 1,340-kilometer (833-mile) border.
- Trilateral summit in Antalya
As Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu hosted a trilateral summit with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts in Antalya, southern Turkiye last week, Haavisto praised Turkiye’s efforts for peace as “very valuable,” saying Cavusoglu “did a great job” getting Russia’s Sergey Lavrov and Ukraine’s Dmytro Kuleba together.
“We know that these are the first contacts on the foreign minister-level but this conflict can only be solved through the peaceful means of negotiations,” he said.
Asked what he expects to happen in Russia’s war on Ukraine, now into its fourth week, Haavisto said “it depends very much on Russia.”
“They have to respect the current government and current president of Ukraine,” he said.
“And that will be the beginning of any talks. I think, if good arguments could be used in this situation, these are all for the peaceful resolution of the conflict.”
Sharing his pleasure at being at the diplomatic forum in Antalya, he said: “We have actually also triggered together with Turkey the mediation support processes (on Ukraine) at the UN level.”
“So we are on the same page with Turkey, very much supporting mediation and finding diplomatic solutions to conflicts,” he added.
- EU, NATO, and Turkiye
On NATO’s role, Haavisto said: “NATO, of course, has to be very careful not to expand the war in any way and try to capsule it where it is now and avoiding anything that could be looked at as a provocation.”
He added: “But at the same time, NATO is defending its members. And we see this for example, like enforced NATO presence in the Baltic states and so forth or in Poland. This is important at this stage.”
Asked about Turkiye’s EU accession process, he said Finland has always advocated for its membership.
“And from the very beginning when this application was made, we were one of those countries that were thinking that we should really start talking and start the process with Turkey,” he said.
Both NATO and EU are organizations that “give a lot of security to the member states,” according to Haavisto.
“Finland has been always advocated as a member of the European Union the solidarity article in our agreements … which means that European Union countries are bound to protect each other during times of crisis and times of conflict,” he said.
“And in Finland, we have this debate (saying) that if the European Union is capable of mobilizing so much help for a country that is not a member of the European Union like Ukraine, it means that we are quite capable also of defending our members in the future.”
*Writing by Rabia Iclal Turan in Istanbul