Finland insists it will join Nato with Sweden

Finland has insisted it still wants to join Nato alongside Sweden, dismissing a suggestion from Turkey that it could enter the alliance alone amid an apparently intractable stand-off between Stockholm and Ankara.

The two Nordic states have long made defence and security decisions in unison and both submitted their formal requests for Nato membership on the same day last May, jolted out of their traditional military non-alignment by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

However, their accession has been held up by Turkey, which accuses Sweden of harbouring “terrorist” elements associated with Turkish dissident groups such as the PKK, a Kurdish militia, and the Gülenists, a religious movement.

Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, suggested that the two applications could be dealt with separately. “It is a fair approach to set a difference between a problematic country and a less problematic one,” he said.

However, Pekka Haavisto, the Finnish foreign minister, has rejected the idea, saying: “Our strong wish is still to join Nato together with Sweden.”

Finland, where both the government and the public have swung enthusiastically behind Nato membership, has begun to show signs of impatience after Turkey suspended the talks last week.

Haavisto had hinted last week that his country could push ahead on its own if Sweden’s path continued to be blocked.

While he later said these remarks had been “imprecise”, they have fuelled speculation that Finland may ultimately be prepared to press on alone.

President Erdogan of Turkey seized on the opening and appeared to say he might wave through Finland’s application but continue to obstruct Sweden’s.

“We may deliver to Finland a different message and Sweden would be shocked when they see our message,” Erdogan said in a televised speech on Sunday. “But Finland should not make the same mistake Sweden did.”

The central issue is thought to be Erdogan’s demand that Sweden extradite a number of Kurdish and Gülenist organisers wanted by the Turkish authorities on charges including terror offences.

The Swedish government has responded that it cannot interfere with the courts because this would compromise the rule of law.

The dispute has been exacerbated by recent protests in Sweden, including one rally where Kurdish activists hung an effigy of Erdogan upside down, and another where a right-wing extremist burnt a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.

Despite the frustration in Helsinki, Sanna Marin, the Finnish prime minister, also insisted last week that Finland and Sweden would not be separated from one another.

 “From our perspective it’s important that Finland and Sweden are going to Nato together because we are sharing the same security environment,” Marin told an audience at Davos. “I think the process should have been faster. Finland and Sweden — we both tick all the boxes when it comes to Nato.”