Finland Mulls Arms Exports To Turkey Amid Pressure Over NATO Entry

Finland continues dancing to Turkey’s tune, and is now actually considering granting arms export permits to Ankara following its signing on to the 2019 EU ban in the wake of the Turkish military’s incursion into Syria against Kurdish militias.

Finland’s Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen said his government is willing to move toward granting arms export permits Turkey on a case-by-case basis, and in return Turkey should speedily ratify Finland’s NATO membership.

He met this week with his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar in the Turkish capital, but after the meeting it became clear there’s as yet no “clear date” for ascent to NATO membership. Turkish officials have continued to say from their point of view there’s “no rush” – while continuing to demand the Nordic countries end all support to Kurdish groups that the Turkish government deems “terrorists”.

Complaining about this in a press conference with Swedish and American officials, FM Haavisto said “What we are still missing is the clear date, a clear plan for the Turkish parliament to deal with this issue.”

The Finnish defense chief explained the following, which is still unlikely to help move things along with Turkey:

“There is no categorical export ban,” Kaikkonen told reporters after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara. “Finland makes decisions on defense material export permits on a case by case basis, and being allies in NATO will be part of this holistic consideration process.”

In September, Sweden approved deliveries of defense products to Turkey, having revoked all valid export permits to Ankara in 2019. In the same year, Finland took a political decision not to grant new export permits to Turkey, saying defense materials can’t be sold to countries at war.

However, as the report points out, Finland has since backed off that principled stance, given it is now sending defense aid to Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.

Finland is holding out hope that membership can at least be approved by Ankara before Turkey’s 2023 election. The fear looms that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could delay the Finland and Sweden membership question for months in order to send a “tough” signal for domestic political consumption. Given past patterns, it’s more than likely that Erdogan will leverage this for as long as it takes, and Finland and Sweden will continue in limbo.