VIDEO | Andonovi:: Croatia, Turkey, Hungary - Who will block the membership of Sweden and Finland in NATO?

Jens Stoltenberg Finland Sweden
Jens Stoltenberg / Photo: EPA-EFE / JOHANNA GERON

After the neutral Finland and Sweden submitted a request to NATO to change its neutral status and permanent membership in the Alliance, several countries unexpectedly appeared that did not agree with this request of Stockholm and Helsinki.

Many expected that these two Nordic countries, as fully prepared and with fulfilled criteria, should only wish and be immediately accepted as permanent members of the North Atlantic Alliance.

But surprisingly, there was a great deal of resistance among the member states themselves. Probably the biggest surprise came from Zagreb. Namely, the local president Zoran Milanovic, against the government policy of Zagreb, came out and publicly said that he opposes the membership of these two countries in NATO and that he obliged the Croatian ambassador to NATO to vote against the entry of Sweden and Finland into the Alliance.

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic has said that Finland and Sweden's future membership in NATO will depend on changing BiH's election law, as well as on Zagreb blocking the two countries' accession to the Alliance, the Kyiv Independent news agency reported on Twitter. .

The agency said in a statement on Twitter that Milanovic indicated that they were "destroying" Croats in BiH as a political entity.

Turkey has also announced it will block Finland and Sweden's NATO membership

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has set ten conditions for no objections to Sweden and Finland joining NATO.

Among other things, Turkey expects a clarification of the two countries 'approach when it comes to the Kurdistan Workers' Party and a cessation of the group's leadership activities in those countries, including in Parliament.

Ankara also calls for a halt to financial support for the Syrian Kurdish forces to protect the people.

Among the demands is a halt to disinformation activities led by members of FETO, an organization accused of plotting a 2016 coup in Turkey, which Turkish authorities are searching for. Acceleration of extradition of members of Kurdish groups is demanded. Turkey also proposes mutual initiatives to establish a mechanism for close co-operation and regular consultations with the country on terrorism.

As a condition, Ankara puts an end to the smuggling of money in both countries to structures linked to terrorist organizations and the blocking of their accounts. Sweden and Finland are also expected to block any fundraising and anti-Turkish initiatives by groups posing as NGOs, Turkish media reported.

The list of ten demands of Turkey has yet to be presented to the interlocutors, the text reads.

However, it remains to be seen how the allies, primarily the United States, will react to such announcements by these two NATO member states to block the admission of the two new, geostrategically important aspiring members. The problem could be exacerbated if another member state, such as Hungary or perhaps Bulgaria, expressed the same dissatisfaction with Finland and Sweden's membership in the alliance.

Finland and Sweden formally submitted their applications for NATO membership yesterday, launching the accession process which is expected to take only a few weeks. Both countries were neutral during the Cold War.

- Russia's reaction to the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO will be proportional to the presence of the Alliance on the territory of those two countries - said the President of the Council of the Russian Federation Valentina Matviyenko.

Moscow believes that the decision of Sweden and Finland was made under pressure from the West, especially the United States and NATO, and that the entry of both countries into the Alliance will have a negative impact on the political situation in Europe.

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