The Finnish president defends the decision to join NATO separately from Sweden

Flags of Finland and NATO / Photo designer491 / Alamy / Alamy / Profimedia

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto defended the decision for his country to enter NATO separately from neighboring Sweden, claiming that Turkey's refusal to ratify Finland's candidacy would be problematic, the German agency DPA reported today.

"Should we have rejected the Turkish ratification?" That sounds a bit crazy," Niinisto said in an interview with Swedish public broadcaster SVT, which was broadcast in full on Saturday night.

"If we had said 'no' to Ankara, it would have been a very problematic situation," he added.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Friday that his government would begin the ratification process for Finland, but not for Sweden.

After decades of neutrality, the two Scandinavian countries applied for NATO membership last May following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Stockholm and Helsinki have made it clear that they want to join NATO together.

Turkey continues to block admission to Sweden over what it says is Sweden's refusal to extradite 120 people Ankara considers terrorists.

Hungary has yet to ratify Finland's application, with a decision expected on March 27.

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