Turkey’s president says he will back Finland’s NATO bid

By ANDREW WILKS
Associated Press

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his government will move forward with ratifying Finland’s NATO application, paving the way for the country to join the military bloc ahead of Sweden. The breakthrough came as Finnish President Sauli Niinisto was in Ankara on Friday to meet with Erdogan. Both Finland and Swden applied to become NATO members 10 months ago in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, abandoning decades of nonalignment. Erdogan suggested Wednesday that his country might take up Finland’s accession following Niinisto’s trip. NATO requires the unanimous approval of its 30 existing members to expand, and Turkey and Hungary have failed so far to ratify the accession of the Nordic neighbors.