Finnish President Sauli Niinistö travels to Turkey on Thursday, where he is due to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday as Ankara says it is ready to finalize its green light for the Nordic country's entry into NATO.
The Finnish head of state, accompanied by Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, must first travel to the area affected by last month's earthquakes in southeastern Turkey.
The meeting with President Erdogan must in particular relate to the construction sites of the reconstruction and the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, blocked for the time being by Ankara.
Turkey, whose green light is essential as a member of NATO, has refused for the time being to ratify the two candidacies.
But his criticisms, which relate in particular to Kurdish militants living in the two countries, mainly concern Sweden, accused of passivity against the hated Kurdish PKK of Ankara.
The way is therefore largely clear for Helsinki.
Even if Hungary, too, still has to ratify Swedish and Finnish membership.
The 28 other members (United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, etc.) have already ratified it in Parliament.
No date is set yet
While Turkey has said it is ready to ratify Finland's membership separately, no date has been set by the Turkish Parliament, however, ahead of elections on May 14.
Faced with the stalemate in negotiations between Sweden and Turkey, the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, had for the first time mentioned, in mid-February, the possibility of membership in two stages.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson admitted on Tuesday that the likelihood of Finland joining NATO before Sweden had increased in recent weeks, while still hoping to quickly complete Stockholm's entry after the Turkish elections.
Tripartite negotiations, suspended after the burning of a Koran by an extremist in Sweden, resumed last week.
