On Thursday, March 16, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto will leave for Turkey on a two-day working visit, in particular to discuss the issue of the country's accession to NATO. It is reported by Yle.

The trip will begin with a visit to the earthquake zone in the southeast of Turkey. On Friday, March 17, Niinisto will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul.

The topic of the meeting will be the accession to NATO of Finland and Sweden. In addition, issues of Turkey's reconstruction after the earthquake, the geopolitical situation and bilateral relations between the countries will be discussed..

The Finnish President will also be accompanied by Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.

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Sweden and Finland abandoned their years of military neutrality and applied for NATO membership last May in response to Russia's war against Ukraine.. Among all NATO countries, only Turkey and Hungary did not approve the applications of Sweden and Finland for membership.. Vote on ratification of applications in the Hungarian Parliament is likely to be postponed again at the suggestion of a senior official.

Recently, the Swedish Prime Minister acknowledged that it is likely that Finland will join NATO before his country because of Turkey's opposition to Sweden's bid..

It was reported that Turkey has resumed negotiations with Sweden and Finland regarding their entry into NATO.. Representatives of Turkey, Sweden and Finland met at NATO Headquarters on Thursday, March 9. What did they agree on? What are the chances of Stockholm and Helsinki that the Turkish parliament will approve their applications before the start of the NATO summit in Vilnius? Or at least until the end of the year? The answers to these questions are in the article by Vladimir Kravchenko “Earthquake diplomacy: will Sweden and Finland be allowed into NATO”?