On Wednesday, NATO diplomats failed to reach a consensus on whether to start early membership talks with Finland and Sweden after the Nordic countries formally handed in their applications. Officials wouldn’t say publicly who objected, but sources told Middle East Eye Turkey blocked the start of the talks.
Turkey is the only NATO member that has loudly objected to Finland and Sweden joining NATO. Ankara’s opposition is over the Nordic country’s alleged ties to the PKK, a Kurdish militant group Turkey considers to be a terrorist organization, and over an arms export restriction that Sweden and Finland imposed on Turkey.
Three Turkish officials told Bloomberg that in order for Ankara to drop its objection, Finland and Sweden must denounce the PKK, which the US and EU also have designated as a terrorist group. Turkey wants Helsinki and Stockholm to crack down on suspected PKK members Ankara says are in their territory.
Turkey also wants the Nordic nations to lift the arms export restrictions, which were imposed in 2019 when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched an offensive in northeast Syria. “We cannot say ‘yes’ to those who impose sanctions on Turkey, on joining NATO,” Erdogan said on Monday.
Turkey also has gripes with current NATO members, although the Turkish officials said they wouldn’t use Sweden and Finland to negotiate other issues. Chief among Turkey’s problems with the alliance is the US sanctions imposed over its purchase of S-400 Russian missile defense systems. The US also kicked Turkey out of the F-35 program over the purchase, which Ankara wishes to rejoin.
Clumsy EU expansion changes everything. Watch the F-35 opposition maguacally disappear as Greece & Armenia opposition are thrown to the dogs.
There are NATO members that Silently object to Finland and Sweden Accession…! It’s only the matter of time that they will be loud…!
WHO, WHO, WHO, ARE THEY…..?????
Will NATO target Austria next? forcing them to join? Now Sweden & Finland are lost, Austria still offers a shining example to the non-corrupt nations like Germany and Hungary to exit NATO and its bloody insanity.
Unfortunatelly I do not see it possible.
Germany from its unification acquired a seed of self destruction. Bismarck its founder predicted that much. Former largelly protestant Prussia was the nycleus around which other small predominantly Catholic German states gathered in one united country. It was a threat to British power immediatelly as the industrial revolution took off in Getmany. Prussia had good relations with Russia. Old Prussian language has many similarities to Russian,
This ended as the royal inheritance in Germany brought to power Queen Victoria’s granson (son if her oldest daughter). He promptly fired Bismarck and degraded Prussia’s influence. Germany became playground of British spies and two colored revolutikns were hatched there: Trotsky’s Russian revolution and Turkey’s Ataturk.
WWI was upposed to be a cakewalk for UK, including the planned color revolutions in Russia and Turkey.
It did not turn out to plan. Prussia fought and war lingered. Until US waddled into the cinflict to redraw the map of Europe. Versailles broke up Prussia for good. Mist of it remained in Eastern Europe. After reunification, they were kept down through underdevelopment. It is only in Eastern Europe that opposition is supported. Western part ofvthe country is thoroughly Westerm, pro-American kuberalism oriented.
Would not Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmitt, Helmut Kohl have easily recognized in Neocon America another hubristic Krieg Stadt aiming for another Imperial Reich, and rejected it forcefully? To my understanding, “Prussian” (like “Texan”) signifies reactionary, not representative of Germany. The Rhineland and Bavaria are more the type, and with great affinity to Austria, politically and culturally sophisticated. It’s very difficult to see them supporting such manifest frauds as Zelensky, Biden, BoJo, Stoltenberg, … ?
DOLTenburg to me… he has started a fight his Gnomes can never win. And maybe destroy the place trying like Zelensky is doing to Ukraine!!! No Air Force, no navy, but still he fights on & on destroying one city after another Victory over a wasteland of ruin. Some victory!?
Austria would bring what to the table?
They don’t border any unpacified country, have a valuable coastline, or have an extensive military infrastructure built into mountains for NATO to exploit.
Aren’t they a stellar example of the benefits of neutrality? Mightn’t the populations of old Allied Europe, particularly Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Belgium, and England all of whom were strictly lessoned by historical fascism see its current parallel in Neoconservatism/neoliberalism and chose instead the Austria model?
… No.
NATO countries need American power to kick down Third World doors and keep them open.
Trump pulled the US out of the African Sahel;
https://www.dw.com/en/fear-reigns-in-africas-sahel-region-amid-us-military-drawdown-plan/a-52569189
The Euros couldn’t hold the Sahel on their own.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/27/denmark-pulls-mali-troops-out-as-junta-takes-swipe-at-france
There’s also US military dole. Paying more for a US presence, does not reduce the positive impact US bases have on a local economy, even for Germany.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/02/removal-of-us-troops-from-germany-will-gravely-affect-local-communities
But the US isn’t interested in the Sahel. Somalia has always been its problem and project; and, one wherein it has had little success against jihadism, …as in any of its military projects from Gaza to Pakistan.
As for “the dole” -and it is a dole since for 75 yrs they’ve had no military justification- self-respecting autonomous states must find it an embarrassment. And, excepting the locals, Germany, Italy, Spain, … do.
The US may not be interested in the Sahel, but Europe is. The US would be there ‘leading’ European interests now if they had the resources to spare.
Somalia is sometimes included in maps of the African Sahel.
The Sahel is that part of Africa that transitions from the Sahara Desert to African Savanna.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GbQU8s0lrcY/T9iRrka8EXI/AAAAAAAAALk/4fVde3Ie-V4/s1600/africasahel.gif
Time for the Turkey to roast NATO for a change!