STOCKHOLM, October 12. /TASS/. Finland has secured the support of its NATO partners in case of a direct threat even before actually joining the alliance, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Wednesday.
"Being in the 'NATO waiting room’, we have received assurances of support from many major players: the US, the UK, key European countries," Haavisto said in an interview with the Yle TV. "I believe that whatever threat Finland faces, we will get help from partners, even if we are not yet members of the alliance," the top diplomat said.
The minister also said that after the Nord Stream incidents, the Baltic Sea states "have strengthened surveillance of the water area and increased security measures at critical infrastructure facilities that could be attacked."
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg earlier stressed that the alliance would take measures to strengthen protection of critical infrastructure of the member states. According to him, any attacks on critical infrastructure "will get a collective response" from the allies.
On May 18, Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership, however, their accession was immediately blocked by Turkey who demanded that these countries declare Kurdish organizations as terrorist, extradite to Ankara those individuals accused of terrorist activity or the participation in the 2016 state coup attempt as well as lift bans on arms supplies to Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andresson, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on June 28, ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid. The talks yielded a memorandum on Sweden’s and Finland’s accession to NATO, which is to be ratified by all the alliance’s member states. According to the Turkish leader, Sweden promised to extradite щмук 70 persons involved in terrorist activities.