environment. finland takes the step of nato membership in order to strengthen not only its own security, but also in order to strengthen wider transatlantic security. this is not away from anybody. like you, mr. president, said nato is protective, not a threat to anybody. at the same time we must not forget that, at this very moment, the proud people of ukraine are fighting not only for their own freedom and democracy, but for our common security. finland, together with the eu and the united states, stands firmly behind ukraine. so, mr. president, once again, i want to thank you for making history with us. thank you. thank you. mr. president, thank you for welcoming president niinisto and me to the white house. the bonds between sweden and the united states, they are strong and long standing, and as you know, swedes first in your home state of delaware in 1638, and we were one of the first countries to recognize the united states as an independent nation in 1783. since th
environment. finland takes the step of nato membership in order to strengthen not only its own security, but also in order to strengthen wider transatlantic security. this is not away from anybody. like you, mr. president, said nato is protective, not a threat to anybody. at the same time we must not forget that, at this very moment, the proud people of ukraine are fighting not only for their own freedom and democracy, but for our common security. finland, together with the eu and the united states, stands firmly behind ukraine. so, mr. president, once again, i want to thank you for making
i think it will increase security in the baltic sea region in europe and for the alliance. let s talk about the opposition coming from turkey. the leaders today, they seemed as john hardwood noted, they seemed confident these memberships will be granted and this will go through. you also think that this will get ironed out, the concerns raised by turkey. why are you confident of this? well, i ve worked with our turkish friends over the years. i remember being a young civil servant of the european council in helsinki in december 1999 when we actually opened doors for the turkish eu negotiations. i also remember establishing friends of peace mediation with foreign minister at the time ahmed davtolo in the u.n., and i ve always had trust in the relationship that we ve had. now these things happen, they re domestic issues here. you know, one of the things that wasn t mentioned in your piece was that there s also an issue with f-35s coming from the u.s.
consequential comments from the turkish president erdogan. he says he does not view it positively when asked about sweden and finland joining nato. obviously it s difficult to verify what exactly he s said, but the base case we have to look at is sweden and finland have always been in favor of turkish eu membership. i remember i was a young civil servant in the summit meeting in helsinki in 1999 when we opened the door in the eu and negotiations so in that sense i think i m not convinced turkey is going to be a problem here. okay. let s look to the changes in finland because finland is a country that has resisted joining nato for many decades. building this position in effect