Turkey agrees to back Finland and Sweden's bid to join alliance

Deals have been done and Turkey will now accept the inclusion of Finland and Sweden into the Alliance at NATO's Madrid summit this week.

A statement from the president of Finland, Sauli Niinisto, said: "We had a thorough meeting with president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and prime minister of Sweden Magdalena Andersson, facilitated by secretary general of NATO Jens Stoltenberg.

"As a result of that meeting, our foreign ministers signed a trilateral memorandum which confirms that Turkey will at the Madrid summit this week support the invitation of Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO."

Mr Stoltenberg confirmed the the agreement, saying the memorandum addressed Turkey's concerns, including around arms exports and terrorism.
news.sky.com...

So much for Turkey's opposition theater.

This ought to do far more to poke the bear than even the cutting off of Kaliningrad.

We shall see.

a reply to: projectvxn

Russia only has their self to blame.

All they had to do was not be a dick. But they just couldn't do that. Instead they've spent years antagonizing and attempting to destabilize Sweden and Finland. The invasion of Ukraine was simply the straw that broke the camel's back.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

It said to world that no neighbour of Russia is safe from Russian aggression. What i find sad in this era of information that even still as humans one thing has not changed, there is still people who follow destructive leaders and it is only due disinformation.

originally posted by: Xcalibur254
a reply to: projectvxn

Russia only has their self to blame.

All they had to do was not be a dick. But they just couldn't do that. Instead they've spent years antagonizing and attempting to destabilize Sweden and Finland. The invasion of Ukraine was simply the straw that broke the camel's back.

I was born in Finland and have lived for years in Sweden, and i have absolutely no idea what you meant by your comment.

They probably bribed Turkey to do this

a reply to: XipeTotex

I guess you are young if you don´t see it.. I am Scandinavian too and i see it clearly ! Edit need to add.. Maybe you are not Scandinavian origin. Russians and oligarchs has been buying a lot of estates in Scandinavia some estates in nearby strategic places.. So where you fit in ?

originally posted by: dollukka
a reply to: XipeTotex

I guess you are young if you don´t see it.. I am Scandinavian too and i see it clearly ! Edit need to add.. Maybe you are not Scandinavian origin. Russians and oligarchs has been buying a lot of estates in Scandinavia some estates in nearby strategic places.. So where you fit in ?

Maybe i am just blind.

Long lasting peace between Finland and Russia, a mountain of mutually beneficial things going on with business,energy,tech,logistics, the list goes on and on.

Sweden is a bit different, lots of historical wars with Russia.

I am very familiar about the history of this area, its a hobby of mine.

originally posted by: peaceinoutz
They probably bribed Turkey to do this

+1
when you see an objection based on principle, and it disappears,
not hard to figure which prin$iple was at stake.

Maybe you are not Scandinavian origin. Russians and oligarchs has been buying a lot of estates in Scandinavia some estates in nearby strategic places.. So where you fit in ?

I have no idea what you are trying to say there.


Besides, Finland is not a part of Skandinavia, we are Norden. And Finns speak a very different language even.

a reply to: XipeTotex

Since at least 2013, the Russian air force has made numerous illegal excursions into Finnish and Swedish air space, including one instance where they were training for bombing run in Sweden.

There's also the famous instance of a Russian sub hosting Sweden's water.

Russia also has a long history of releasing propaganda with the intent of undermining the governments of Sweden and Finland. I remember specific instance a few years back when Sweden was scheduled to run a training scenario for a chemical attack and Russian agents started claiming that it was a false flag and the Swedish government were going to launch a chemical attack on their own people.

a reply to: XipeTotex

Business with Russia was just a fraction of finnish economy over the decades. The goal had always been Europe . During last decades finnish exports has dimished to low numbers with Russia as the markets are not in East and imports seems to be non existing ( some though ) i read sometime ago that finnish trade with Russia has been only 4% since year 2000. Swedish export to Russia is only 1.3 % and imports only 1.4 so what is Russia for Scandinavian economy .. i say it NOTHING

a reply to: peaceinoutz

I'm guessing it's probably a smaller bribe than Turkey was blatantly asking for with their original demands.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

I seem to remember an incident at the beginning of the latest iteration of this war where they invaded Swedish airspace with an aircraft purported it be armed with a nuclear weapon.

I don't know if this was propaganda or if it actually happened. But if it did, I can imagine how it might push Sweden into NATO. Same with Finland.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

Nobody cares about air space incidents, we joke about them, as we joke about Russian submarines. Finland was proud that it could stay in the neutral zone, it was good while it lasted.

Besides, stuff happens in our waters too, like, who or what made MS Estonia sink? Or what about MS Thor liberty smuggling missiles to South Korea or somewhere, it happened in 2011, it had an Ukrainian crew, and they were hauling Patriot missiles. Paperwork of the ship had listed them as "fireworks".

a reply to: projectvxn

A poke in both eyes today.
www.msn.com... ing

U.S. blocks gold imports from Russia in latest round of sanctions targeting Putin's war

originally posted by: dollukka
a reply to: XipeTotex

Business with Russia was just a fraction of finnish economy over the decades. The goal had always been Europe . During last decades finnish exports has dimished to low numbers with Russia as the markets are not in East and imports seems to be non existing ( some though ) i read sometime ago that finnish trade with Russia has been only 4% since year 2000. Swedish export to Russia is only 1.3 % and imports only 1.4 so what is Russia for Scandinavian economy .. i say it NOTHING

The goal was always to have "good relations". as former president Kekkonen said.

Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine.

a reply to: scraedtosleep

This will just cause gold to go up in price.

It won't hurt Russia at all.

There has to be a better way to end this conflict that isn't tit for tat escalations.

Putin can absolutely thank himself for this

a reply to: projectvxn

Russian military aircrafs has done that every now and then many decades in both airspaces.. i guess they are testing are we awake or not... and we are awake.