Macron calls on Erdogan to 'respect' Finland and Sweden's sovereign decision to join NATO

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding the latter's opposition to Sweden and Finland's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) application. President Macron urged President Erdogan to "respect Finland and Sweden's sovereign decision to join NATO." The French President further hoped for a "solution be quickly found to lift the Turkish veto."

The Elysee Palace released a statement after the phone call, "The President of the Republic stressed the importance of respecting the sovereign choice of these two countries, resulting from a democratic process and intervening in response to the evolution of their security environment."

Ankara warned on May 25 that it would not accept Sweden and Finland's membership unless it received "concrete measures" from NATO regarding its security concerns. Turkey sparked a crisis within NATO, of which it is a member, by opposing the organisation's expansion to these two countries. Sweden and Finland will be unable to join NATO unless all of the bloc's members agree.

Erdogan had asked the Nordic nations to not send their delegations to Turkey

Furthermore, Turkish President Erdogan earlier stated that the two Nordic nations should not send delegations to Turkey in order to persuade it of their goals. Ankara said that it will not support the applications, citing Sweden's and Finland's records of harbouring members of Kurdish militant groups, as well as decisions in 2019 to impose arms export embargoes on Ankara as a result of Turkey's military involvement in Syria.

On May 17, Sweden's Foreign Minister, Ann Linde, signed a NATO membership application. Stockholm took a formal step toward joining the US-led military alliance, effectively ending decades of military neutrality, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine causes a major shift in European security and geopolitics. Moreover, Finland indicated its willingness to join the 30-nation alliance on May 15.

Erdogan's threats to derail Sweden and Finland's membership aspirations highlight a potential weakness that Putin has tried to exploit in the past: the consensus-run alliance's cumbersome nature, which permits a single member to reject actions approved by the other 29. Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has stated that the two countries will be welcomed "with open arms," but their bids must be approved by all 30 members of the alliance, and Turkey appears to be the most likely stumbling block.