The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Pekka Haavisto, said that his country's decision to become a member of NATO together with Sweden has not changed.


APA reports with reference to YLE that the Finnish Foreign Minister spoke about this at the press conference he organized for journalists in the parliament today.


Haavisto said that he discussed the latest events with both NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström.


"My colleague Billström and I agreed that, despite all these protests, our joint efforts regarding Finland and Sweden's membership in NATO will continue. We are trying to ensure that both countries ratify their membership and become NATO members at the same time. NATO's message to Turkey It is very clear. The hope is that the membership of Finland and Sweden will be confirmed at the same time. Turkey has also registered this," the minister said.


He said that there was no change in Finland's approach after the events in Sweden.


According to the head of the MFA, after the events in Stockholm, NATO also has concerns about how it will affect their membership period.


"Of course, during our discussions, I confirmed that we have a desire to join NATO at the same time as Sweden. The goal is still for Finland and Sweden to join NATO together.


Stoltenberg also confirmed that NATO's absolute priority is for Finland and Sweden to become allies at the same time .

being a member".


It should be noted that this morning the head of the Finnish Foreign Ministry said in an interview to YLE that if Sweden's application is delayed for a longer time, Finland will have to reconsider the issue of promoting the NATO membership application at the same time as Sweden.

This statement caused concern in Sweden.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said that he will contact his Finnish counterpart and request a more detailed explanation on this issue.


Finnish Defense Minister Mikko Savola also commented on the issue.

In this regard, he shared on his Twitter account.

"Now it is important to take a cool-headed approach. We applied for NATO membership at the same time as Sweden. It is in the interest of Finland, Sweden and NATO that we complete this process together," he said in his post.