Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, proper, and Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto shake arms throughout a welcome ceremony on the presidential palace in Ankara, Turkey, on Friday.

Burhan Ozbilici/AP

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Burhan Ozbilici/AP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, proper, and Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto shake arms throughout a welcome ceremony on the presidential palace in Ankara, Turkey, on Friday.

Burhan Ozbilici/AP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his nation will begin the ratification course of for Finland’s membership to NATO. The announcement caps an almost 10-month look forward to Finland to affix the alliance as Erdogan has delayed a choice on the matter.

“NATO will turn out to be stronger with Finland’s membership and thus, I consider, will play an lively function in sustaining world safety and stability,” Erdogan mentioned Friday in a joint press convention in Ankara with Finnish President Sauli Ninnistö.

In Could 2022, Finnish and Swedish officers introduced plans to affix the NATO alliance, an historic shift for each international locations. However the street to NATO membership has been an extended one and guarantees to be even longer for Sweden, which remains to be ready on Erdogan.

He has vowed to not log out on Stockholm’s bid until it returns greater than 120 members of Kurdish militant teams. Turkey considers them terrorists and accuses Sweden of harboring them.

“We’ll proceed our talks with Sweden on the premise of NATO’s ideas and our strategy to the combat towards terrorism,” mentioned Erdogan.

Finland, which shares an 810-mile border with Russia, has remained impartial for years. However since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, assist for NATO membership contained in the Scandinavian nation has risen dramatically.

In an announcement, U.S. Nationwide Safety Advisor Jake Sullivan mentioned, “The US welcomes President Erdogan’s announcement that he’ll ship Finland’s NATO accession protocols to the Turkish Parliament and appears ahead to the immediate conclusion of that course of. We encourage Türkiye to rapidly ratify Sweden’s accession protocols as nicely.”

Rob Schmitz reported from Berlin. Fatma Tanis reported from Adana, Turkey.