Sweden and Finland join NATO | Canada is trying to pacify Turkey

(Ottawa) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday that Canada is working with other NATO countries to persuade Turkey not to veto the membership of Sweden and Finland. Helsinki’s ambassador to Ottawa says he was “a little confused” by Ankara’s opposition.

Melanie Marquis
Press

The Nordic states, which have renounced their long-standing non-alignment and neutrality, are still being formed to join the coalition, determined in Canada and the United States, where President Joe Biden received Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena on Thursday. Anderson, and Finnish President Sauli Ninisto.

But the desire for the immediate recognition of the candidatures of Canadian, American and European countries goes against the hostility of Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is blocking the process, under the false pretense that Sweden and Finland are breeding grounds for terrorists from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. PKK). On Thursday, he continued to sign.

“It is necessary to clarify what their shortcomings are. Finland is part of the European Union, we follow EU sanctions and rules, and the PKK is on the list of terrorist organizations within the EU, in our opinion. So we’re a little confused, “said Roy Eriksson, Finland’s ambassador to Ottawa.

Ahead of a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Justin Trudeau promised, “We are implementing it as a community. The day before, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Jolie had an” important “conversation with her Turkish envoy, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, at NATO.”

Earlier in the week, the diplomat pointed out that Ottawa could say yes to applications for Finnish and Swedish members “in the next few days”. Roy Eriksen, however, lamented that the Turkish opposition was thwarting the two states’ rapid merger plan. “Initially, we thought the process could take a year, but it was interrupted,” he says.

“Bargaining Opportunity”

But why is Turkey playing spoofs? “Because she sees an opportunity to bargain and make some gains. Alternatively what she wants has nothing to do with the members,” said Justin Massey, a professor of political science at the University of Quebec in Montreal.

In particular, he explains that Turkey wants Sweden and the United States to reduce or stop supplying their support and weapons to the Kurds, on its territory and on Syria’s side. This Turkish threat will pay off, as the political scientist already plans.

Turkey is not “bad” because it was “already isolated within NATO after the war in Syria”, and this time it offers “in my opinion, the potential for gain”. Justin Massey explains that the Atlantic Alliance needs Turkey, among other things, for its “geographical environment”.

If there is a threat there will be NATO

Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau assured the leaders of the Arctic countries that Canada would “extend its support” in the event of “threats to their security” between the time they applied to NATO and their official membership. He made the pledge with Finnish Prime Minister Channa Marin on Wednesday and with his Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson on Thursday.

Before him, we made the same promise in Brussels and later in Washington.

The Finnish ambassador did not see the Kremlin descending into provocation. “This is very bad situation planning,” Erickson says. I firmly believe that Moscow has accepted the fact that Finland and Sweden will join NATO – its interest is to have good relations with us if we are members. ⁇

The expansion of the alliance will allow greater stability in this region of Europe, the mission leader in Helsinki hopes: “The threat of war will be less; we will be under Article 5 [protection mutuelle]. Russia will think twice before starting the conflict. ⁇

Despite Turkish opposition, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he was confident that Sweden and Finland would join and that a “quick decision” would be made. He pleaded in Copenhagen that the “only way to respond to the concerns” of a “key ally” like Turkey was to “find common ground”.