May 20, 2022: -Finland’s ex-prime minister confidently says that Turkey’s opposition to Sweden and Finland taking part in NATO will be diplomatically “sorted out.” “I’m sure this will get ironed out,” Alexander Stubb told CNBC. Both Finland and Sweden have been “avid supporters” of the bid to join the European Union of Turkey.

“I imagine that there’ll be a few backroom diplomacies in the coming few days just from my experience; these things get sorted out,” he said.

All member states must agree before the recent members join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has opposed the membership of Sweden and Finland, citing concerns over the two nations’ support of Kurdish separatist organizations inside Turkey. Turkey is referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members as “terrorists.”

On Wednesday, the two Nordic nations formally involved joined the 30-member-strong NATO, a huge change in their security stance directly resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

Both Sweden and Finland have had a long modern history of military nonalignment since the Second World War ended and through the Cold War between the West and the erstwhile Soviet Union.

On Thursday, Leaders of the countries in Washington DC meet U.S. President Joe Biden.

In Finland’s EU presidency in 1999, Stubb pointed out that negotiations for Turkey’s accession to the EU were opened. “That was a historic moment. And I’m sure that President Erdogan will remember that,” he said.