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NATO accession of Sweden and Finland: Expert explains Putin's "propaganda lie" and Erdogan's blockade

2022-05-17T10:32:43.687Z


NATO accession of Sweden and Finland: Expert explains Putin's "propaganda lie" and Erdogan's blockade Created: 05/17/2022, 12:23 p.m By: Magdalena von Zumbusch Out of fear of Russia, two previously neutral states want to join NATO - but the alliance would also benefit enormously from Finland and Sweden. Berlin - Sweden and Finland have spoken out in parliament in favor of wanting to be part of


NATO accession of Sweden and Finland: Expert explains Putin's "propaganda lie" and Erdogan's blockade

Created: 05/17/2022, 12:23 p.m

By: Magdalena von Zumbusch

Out of fear of Russia, two previously neutral states want to join NATO - but the alliance would also benefit enormously from Finland and Sweden.

Berlin - Sweden and Finland have spoken out in parliament in favor of wanting to be part of the NATO military organization.

Markus Kaim, an expert at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), has commented on Putin's lies about NATO's eastward expansion and the forthcoming northward expansion.

He also gave his assessment of the Turkish President's blocking of the two newcomers.

"Erdogan wants to be paid for the approval," says an expert on the blocking of NATO expansions

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his objections to Sweden and Finland's planned NATO membership on Monday.

Turkey would "not say yes" to the two countries joining NATO, he announced.

Turkey has long accused the Nordic countries of harboring Kurdish extremist groups like the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as well as supporters of US-based preacher Fethullah Gülen.

But there could also be something else behind the blockade: On the one hand, the Turkish president's reservations could be influenced by Russia's threatening gestures, especially since he seems to see himself as a mediator between the two warring parties in the Ukraine war.

But Erdogan's desire to assert his concerns against NATO partner USA could play an even more central role: The USA and NATO both have an interest in the accession of Sweden and Finland – which can probably be used as a means of exerting pressure.

There are tensions between Turkey and the USA because Washington does not want to sell certain armaments to Erdogan, SWP expert Kaim told n-tv: "Turkey is subject to armaments policy restrictions because it has an ambivalent relationship with Russia and a Russian one Bought an anti-aircraft system".

As a not insignificant ally, Turkey is able to express criticism: “Nevertheless, Turkey is an important NATO partner, with the second largest army in terms of numbers.

And Ankara has never raised any doubts about its loyalty to the alliance.

So I assume that Erdogan wants to win a prize.

This could consist in the obligation of the USA to dismantle the armaments restrictions and to sell Turkey the desired F35 fighter jets," is Kaim's assumption about Erdogan's agenda.

He does not assume that the president will oppose accession after his concerns have been enforced: "So Erdogan wants to be paid for his approval, but he will not take it to the extreme," Kaim said with conviction.

NATO: Luxembourg's foreign minister criticizes that the blockade is due to Erdogan's "bazaar mentality".

Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn assumes that Turkey will not block Finland and Sweden from joining NATO in the long term.

Ankara cannot accept the responsibility of denying both countries membership, he said on Deutschlandfunk on Tuesday (May 17).

He doubts that the Turkish President is actually concerned with Sweden and Finland and dealing with Kurdish extremist groups.

Asselborn also suspects that Erdogan wants to assert his own interests: he spoke of a "bazaar mentality" on the part of the Turkish president.

Like the SWP expert Kaim, the Luxembourg foreign minister speculated that Ankara's negative attitude could have something to do with the fact that Turkey was hoping for concessions on arms deliveries.

Asselborn also referred to the dispute over the delivery of F-35 fighter jets with the United States.

Turkey's decision to buy Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missiles in 2019 meant Washington imposed sanctions on Ankara and refused to sign a deal with Turkey to buy US fighter jets.

Erdogan could still want to demand this signature with his new lever of power or get comparable military equipment from the USA.

Sweden and Finland: Expert annoyed by "propaganda lie that NATO would expand aggressively"

Markus Kaim from the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin also commented on the distortion of the image of NATO expansions by Vladimir Putin.

Last but not least, Sweden and Finland would now have to assess its threats of new expansions.

The first expansions of NATO in Eastern Europe go back thirty years and, according to Kaim, the reason then was the same as it is today: the fear of Russia was the reason for more and more countries to join NATO.

Putin covers this up by inventing an aggressive advance of the NATO zone of influence towards Russia: "There was always the Russian - one has to put it that way - propaganda lie that NATO would expand aggressively and had done so since the 1990s in the done in Eastern Europe".

NATO expansions out of fear: Russia only has to "look in the mirror" to understand

This depiction probably has little to do with reality: “In fact, states seek their alliance in exercising their right to free self-determination.

The reasons for this are obvious, the Finnish President put it aptly: If you are looking for responsibility for Finland's decision, then Russia must look in the mirror," said Kaim about the actual motivations behind the past and current NATO extensions.

One takes the fear since the attack on Ukraine on February 26 this year more seriously: "Back then it was sometimes seen as exaggerated, today we see it differently," Kaim reflects on the West's misjudgment of the danger posed by Russia up to the beginning of the war Ukraine War.

Russia, on the other hand, continues to try to present itself in a kind of victim role - the latest allegations of threats to Russian ambassadors by the United States are probably based on this strategy.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-05-17

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