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| Turkey Starts Paving Way for Sweden and Finland to Join NATO |
Moscow - After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, Sweden and Finland were known to want to join NATO. The desire of Sweden and Finland, which had previously decided not to side with one of these blocs, sparked anger from the Russian side.
It is also known that Russia has given warnings and threats to the two countries, if they still decide to join. The problem did not end there, one of the NATO members also expressed his disapproval of the wishes of Sweden and Finland.
The Turkish state, led by Erdogan, some time ago stated that they could not comment positively on this matter. Until finally, the decision to join Sweden and Finland became a special discussion in NATO.
Quoted from News Week, there is good news for Sweden and Finland. Turkey has reportedly agreed to a deal that paved the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO. This decision was obtained after a meeting between the leaders of the three countries. In which the three countries agreed to a memorandum discussing Turkey's security issues, which was signed by the foreign ministers of the three countries.
But with this action taken by Erdogan, it will certainly be a big blow for Russia. This is because Putin previously cited the possibility of NATO expansion as one of the justifications for his war in Ukraine.
Quoted from the NY Times, the Secretary-General of NATO, Stoltenberg has announced regarding this agreement from Turkey. I am pleased to announce that we now have an agreement paving the way for Finland and Sweden.
Not only that, it was also mentioned that the meeting also signed a memorandum. The content discusses Turkey's concerns, including arms exports to the fight against terrorism.
Stoltenberg also said that this move had sent a clear message to Putin. "He wants less NATO, now President Putin has more NATO on his borders, he also adds that what Putin is getting now is the exact opposite of what he is actually demanding.
It should be noted that one of the reasons for Putin's invasion was Ukraine's intention to join NATO. So that by carrying out special operations, it is hoped that it can prevent the expansion of NATO itself. However, after the invasion, Finland and Sweden announced their intention to join NATO.
Regarding the expansion of NATO, Putin said that Russia actually has no problems. This is of course if there is no direct threat to Russia from expanding NATO to include the country. But Russia warned that it would respond if NATO began upgrading military infrastructure in Sweden and Finland.