HELSINKI: Sweden’s prime minister acknowledged Tuesday that it is increasingly likely that neighbor Finland will join NATO before his country does, due to Turkiye’s opposition to the Swedish bid.
Ulf Kristersson said during a news conference in Stockholm on Tuesday that it has been clear since NATO’s Madrid summit in June that Finland’s road into membership has been smoother than Sweden’s, and that it is now increasingly likely that Finland will enter NATO first.
Turkiye accuses both nations, but particularly Sweden, of being too soft on groups it deems to be terror organizations or existential threats to Turkiye, including Kurdish groups. Last month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara has fewer problems with Finland joining.
Since they announcing their intention to join the military alliance in May last year, Finland and Sweden have consistently stressed that they would become members of the military alliance at the same time “hand in hand.”
Now, however, Kristersson told reporters, “it’s not out of the question that Sweden and Finland will be ratified in different stages.”
All 30 existing members of NATO have to approve a new member. They all signed the accession protocols for Finland and Sweden last year, and 28 of them have ratified the texts for both countries. Hungarian lawmakers earlier this month started debating the Nordic duo’s membership bids and Budapest may ratify them by the end of March, leaving Turkiye as the final holdout. It says it is still seeking guarantees and assurances from the two countries.
Oscar Stenström, who is the chief Swedish government negotiator in the NATO accession process, said that Stockholm has done what has been required to be approved by Turkiye. Among other things, Sweden last week presented a draft law to parliament aimed at making it illegal to support or participate in terrorist organizations — something that is hoped to reduce NATO opposition from Turkiye.
The activities of groups in Sweden and Finland that Ankara considers to be terrorists is one of the main objections by Turkiye to the Nordic duo, and particularly Sweden, joining NATO. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has waged a 38-year insurgency against Turkiye that has left tens of thousands dead. It is designated a terrorist organization by the USand the European Union.
Sweden has a Kurdish diaspora of around 100,000 people, while there are estimated 15,000 Kurds living in Finland.
Last week, representatives from Sweden, Finland and Turkiye met at NATO headquarters in Brussels after a hiatus of several weeks in attempt to clear the path to the Nordic nations’ membership.
Kristersson said Tuesday that the ultimate decision is in Turkiye’s hands and that Sweden is ready to handle a situation where Finland enters NATO without Sweden.
He repeated what NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said previously, that it would only be a delay.
“Basically, this is not about whether Sweden becomes a NATO member but about when Sweden becomes a NATO member,” Kristersson told reporters.
Swedish leader: Finland likely to join NATO before Sweden
https://arab.news/vh9nf
Swedish leader: Finland likely to join NATO before Sweden
- It has been clear since NATO’s Madrid summit in June that Finland’s road into membership has been smoother than Sweden’s
- Now, however, Kristersson told reporters, "it’s not out of the question that Sweden and Finland will be ratified in different stages”
Faced with Trump, Greenlanders try to reassure their children
- Since Trump returned to the White House last year with a renewed ambition to seize Greenland, international politics has intruded into the Arctic island’s households
NUUK: In a coffee shop in Greenland’s capital Nuuk, Lykke Lynge looked fondly at her four kids as they sipped their hot chocolate, seemingly oblivious to the world’s convulsions.
Since Donald Trump returned to the White House last year with a renewed ambition to seize Greenland, international politics has intruded into the Arctic island’s households.
Dictated by the more or less threatening pronouncements of the US president, it has been an unsettling experience for some people here — but everyone is trying to reassure their children.
Lynge, a 42-year-old lawyer, relied on her Christian faith.
“There’s a lot of turmoil in the world,” she said. “But even if we love our country, we have even higher values that allow us to sleep soundly and not be afraid,” she said.
As early as January 27, 2025, one week after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Greenlandic authorities published a guide entitled “How to talk to children in times of uncertainty?“
“When somebody says they will come to take our country or they will bomb us or something, then of course children will get very scared because they cannot navigate for themselves in all this news,” said Tina Dam, chief program officer for Unicef in the Danish territory.
- Unanswerable questions -
This guide — to which the UN agency for children contributed — recommends parents remain calm and open, listen to their children and be sensitive to their feelings, and limit their own news consumption.
As in many parts of the world, social media, particularly TikTok, has become the primary source of information for young people.
Today, children have access to a lot of information not meant for them, said Dam — “and definitely not appropriate for their age,” she added.
“So that’s why we need to be aware of that as adults and be protective about our children and be able to talk with our children about the things they hear — because the rhetoric is quite aggressive.”
But reassuring children is difficult when you do not have the answers to many of the questions yourself.
Arnakkuluk Jo Kleist, a 41-year-old consultant, said she talked a lot with her 13-year-old daughter, Manumina.
The teenager is also immersed in TikTok videos but “doesn’t seem very nervous, luckily, as much as maybe we are,” she added.
“Sometimes there are questions she’s asking — about what if this happens — that I don’t have any answers to” — because no one actually has the answer to such questions, she said.
- ‘Dear Donald Trump’ -
The Arctic territory’s Inuit culture also helped, said Kleist.
“We have a history and we have conditions in our country where sometimes things happen and we are used to being in situations that are out of our control,” said Kleist.
“We try to adapt to it and say, well, what can I do in this situation?“
Some Greenlandic children and teenagers are also using social media to get their message out to the world.
Seven-year-old Marley and his 14-year-old sister Mila were behind a viral video viewed more than two million times on Instagram — the equivalent of 35 times the population of Greenland.
Serious in subject but lighthearted in tone, the boy addresses the American president.
“Dear Donald Trump, I have a message for you: you are making Greenlandic kids scared.”
Accompanied by hard stares, some serious finger-wagging and mostly straight faces, he and his sister go on to tell Trump: “Greenland is not for sale.”
“It’s a way to cope,” his mother, Paninnguaq Heilmann-Sigurdsen, told AFP of the video. “It’s kid-friendly, but also serious.
“I think it’s a balance between this is very serious, but also, this is with kids.”
