In an interview published today, the Finnish president said he hoped Finland and Sweden would be admitted to NATO by July and hinted he wanted the United States to put pressure on Turkey to approve their membership bids, BTA reported, citing AP. 

If the issue drags on, the entire process of accepting new members into the military alliance will be called into question, President Sauli Niinistö said in an interview with the national news agency ES Te Te.

"If it doesn't happen until the Vilnius meeting, why should it happen after that?" he said.

Lithuania will host the NATO summit, which will be held on July 11 and 12 in the capital of the Baltic republic.

Accepting new members to NATO requires unanimous approval from current members.

Turkey and Hungary are the only countries of the 30-member military alliance that have not formally approved the accession of Sweden and Finland.

While Hungary promised to do so in February, Turkey has not expressed a willingness to ratify the two countries' accession anytime soon.

The Finnish president stressed that Turkey's final decision depends on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Sweden is ready, but waiting for Turkey to restart NATO negotiations

"I think that under no circumstances will he allow himself to be influenced by any public pressure," Ninisteau said.

"But if something comes out of the bilateral negotiations between the US and Turkey, it could have an impact," he added.

Turkey is delaying the approval of Sweden and Finland's NATO membership because it is angered, among other things, by the recent series of demonstrations in Stockholm organized by activists who burned the Koran outside the Turkish embassy and hung an effigy of Erdogan there.

In January, Ankara postponed indefinitely a key meeting in Brussels that was to discuss the two Scandinavian countries' admission to NATO.

Niinistö said that Finland and Sweden heard very encouraging statements from NATO last spring about a smooth and trouble-free progress towards membership after the two Scandinavian countries announced their intention to join the military alliance in May.

However, this did not happen, he said, adding that the delay was not only a problem for the two applicant countries.

"I see that this has already become a problem for NATO. It is obvious that the NATO countries are also surprised," said the Finnish president.

NATO

Sweden

Finland