(Central News Agency) After months of work, the Finnish government finally got Turkish President Erdogan to agree to start the process of ratifying Finland's NATO membership.

Since new NATO members must obtain the consent of all members, Finland has passed Turkey's barrier and still needs Hungary's nod to officially join.

Finland and Sweden applied to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in May last year, reversing decades of military non-alignment following Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine last February.

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Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a press conference today with visiting Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.

Erdogan said at the meeting that after Finland takes concrete measures to fulfill its commitments, the Turkish parliament will start the process of approving Finland's accession to NATO.

Turkey will continue discussions with Sweden on issues related to terrorism, he said.

Whether Sweden can become a member of NATO will directly depend on subsequent measures.

Erdogan remains reluctant to give Sweden the green light because Sweden has refused to extradite what Turkey sees as illegal Kurdish groups and suspects linked to the 2016 coup.

Another analysis believes that Erdogan has been reluctant to nod to the membership case of the two countries for a long time, more or less due to the consideration of urging votes by putting on a tough stance before the election.

Turkey will hold elections on May 14. The local inflation rate remains high, and the speed with which the government handled the earthquake disaster in February has also caused high public dissatisfaction. Erdogan must have a tough battle, and the fight against Kurdish terrorism is Turkey's concern issue, playing this card can also work against opposition voters.

"The New York Times" (The New York Times) pointed out that overall, the attention and influence that Erdogan's non-compliance with the rules has aroused is very appealing to Turkish voters.

Now that Finland has given Turkey the green light one step ahead of Sweden, Niinistö said the process of joining NATO "would not be complete without Sweden" and hopes to see the two countries join before the NATO summit in July.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said he supports the two countries' bid to join NATO, but the Hungarian government has made slow progress on the issue.

The Hungarian parliament is expected to vote on the Finland-Sweden case next week, but it appears likely that another delay will occur.

When the European Union (EU) voted last year on whether to impose sanctions on Russia, Hungary used its veto power to win concessions on other issues, and analysts said Orban appeared to be doing the same with the Nordic countries joining NATO.

Finland and Sweden have been full NATO partners since 1994 and have continued to participate in NATO missions since the Cold War.

Finland has a smaller population than Sweden's 5.5 million, but a well-funded defense sector with 280,000 troops and 870,000 reservists.

Sweden has spent less on defense in recent decades but has moved towards the NATO standard of 2 percent of economic output in 2026.

The Swedish Military Intelligence Security Agency (MUST) stated in February that after the outbreak of the Ukraine war, the Nordic countries and Europe are facing the most severe security threat since the Cold War.

Lena Hallin, head of the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Agency, said that the Russian army currently has limited ability to influence areas around Sweden, but it can learn lessons from the Russia-Ukraine war and strengthen its military deployment.

(Editor: Xu Ruicheng) 1120318