According to the Wall Street Journal, F-16 fighters would be sold to Turkey if it greenlights Nato membership for Finland and Sweden. Turkey’s foreign minister is to visit Washington next week. According to the Wall Street Journal, the White House plans to seek congressional approval for a 20-billion-dollar sale ofContinue Reading
As Turkey and Hungary are yet to ratify the Finnish and Swedish applications, a former Deputy Secretary General has suggested that the Nordic nations could still receive security guarantees in the interim. Minister of Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto (Green) told Yle’s A-studio current affairs programme on Tuesday evening that heContinue Reading
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson says Turkey is making demands that Sweden cannot accept. Ankara’s stipulations were to lift its veto on Stockholm’s bid to join NATO. Kristersson made the comment at the annual Security and Defence meeting where politicians, authorities, and members of civil society gather to discuss defenceContinue Reading
Ruotsin maahanmuuttoministeri Maria Malmer Stenergard vahvistaa ruotsalaiselle SVT:lle, että Ruotsi on karkottanut PKK-järjestöön lukeutuvan turkkilaismiehen. Asiasta uutisoivat aiemmin useat turkkilaismediat. – Kyseessä on karkotustapaus, jossa henkilön turvapaikkahakemus hylättiin, Stenergard sanoi SVT:lle. Tänään mies vangittiin Turkissa, kertoi esimerkiksi turkkilainen TV-kanava NTV. Maahanmuuttoministeri Stenergardin mukaan Ruotsin hallitus ei ole osallistunut päätöksentekoon turvapaikkahakemuksenContinue Reading
Sweden on Friday extradited a Kurdish refugee to Turkey as Ankara keeps pressuring the Nordic country to meet its demands in return for NATO membership. The refugee is among dozens of people wanted in Turkey for terror-related charges. Such steps just show that Sweden will do everything to join NATO.Continue Reading
It seems like the perfect storm for Europe’s energy security as winter is fast approaching and energy prices are rising. Having turned away from Russia as a gas provider, the European Commission has begun negotiating with Norway. A deal for long-term energy cooperation will be discussed during the EU energyContinue Reading
President Niinistö suggested that China, the US and the EU should discuss together how to avoid further escalation of the deadly conflict in Ukraine. Parliamentarians from Nato member and partner countries gathered in Helsinki on Tuesday for the alliance’s Rose-Roth Seminar. The theme of this year’s seminar focused on theContinue Reading
The issue of extending military conscription to include women as well as men has been the subject of much debate in Finland over recent months. Some 35 percent of respondents to a survey by the Uutissuomalainen newspaper group said they would be in favour of extending military conscription to women.Continue Reading
The report, released on October 11, was commissioned by the Prime Minister’s office in Finland in spring 2022. The study was led by the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland and involved Gaia Consulting Oy and the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. Among the issues the team was askedContinue Reading
The Finnish Defence Forces (FD) will hold a combat exercise next week in the Rovaniemi and Rovajärvi areas of Lapland, the FDF said in a press release. The exercise, called Vigilant Knife, will last from Monday to Friday. In addition to the Ground Forces, troops from Sweden and the UKContinue Reading