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During a press conference, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson admitted that Finland’s chances of joining NATO ahead of Sweden’s have increased, especially given Turkey’s objections to Stockholm. “It’s more likely to happen at different rates.”he said. “It is clear that the Turkish side has made it clear in the last weeks that they are ready for Finland, but not for Sweden.”He noted.

As a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland hope to become members of the Atlantic alliance ahead of the next NATO summit in Vilnius in July. But the path to Helsinki is largely clear, while Turkey still has a veto for Stockholm, despite the resumption of talks in Brussels last week. “Turkey still doesn’t think we’ve come all the way, that was made clear in the meeting, while that dissatisfaction was not expressed in relation to Finland.”Swedish negotiator Oscar Stenström explained.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg first raised the possibility of two-step membership in mid-February.

All of NATO’s current 30 members would have to approve the merger of Sweden and Finland in parliament, long neutral and non-aligned. Only Turkey and Hungary have yet to give their consent, and Ankara has publicly raised the possibility of splitting its consent, leaving its agreement only to Helsinki. Ankara specifically accuses Stockholm of inaction “Terrorists” Kurds living in Sweden are demanding dozens of extraditions, which the government has no final say on. Negotiations were suspended for several weeks following diplomatic incidents in January when an extremist burned a Koran in Stockholm.

After several postponements, the Hungarian parliament, for its part, began examining the matter in early March with the support of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government. NATO hopes that a decision will be reached “quickly”.

But the outlook is more uncertain on the Turkish side, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been out of office for 20 years, running for re-election in May 14 elections. Sweden’s hope is that the path to NATO will open after elections in Turkey, where opposition parties field a united candidate against Mr Erdogan.