SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Finland approves military sales to Turkey amid NATO row
Helsinki, Jan 25 (AFP) Jan 25, 2023
Finland's defence ministry said Wednesday the country had issued the first commercial export licence for military materiel to Turkey since 2019 -- a key demand for Ankara to approve Helsinki's NATO bid.

Riikka Pitkanen, special adviser at the ministry, told AFP the export licence concerned steel that would be used for armour.

Finland had suspended new licences for military exports to Turkey in October 2019 due to Turkey's military operation in Syria.

"Since October 2019, no commercial export licences have been issued to Turkey," Pitkanen said.

The resumption of military exports was one of the conditions set by Ankara to give the green light for the Finnish and Swedish NATO bids, which are currently stalled.

In late September, Swedish authorities lifted a ban on military exports to Turkey.

The announcement comes after Ankara on Tuesday postponed NATO accession talks with Sweden and Finland, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Stockholm for allowing protests that included the burning of the Koran outside Turkey's Swedish embassy.

The Finnish defence minister's decision was immediately criticised by one of the parties in Prime Minister Sanna Marin's coalition government.

"The Left Alliance does not support the export of defence materiel to countries at war or violating human rights. We believe that Finland should not grant an export licence for protective steel to Turkey," party leader Li Andersson wrote on Twitter.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
UK opens competitive bid for GBP 75 million orbital cleanup mission
UK invests $191 mn in European satellite firm Eutelsat
Bearings Used in Space Technologies: Engineering for the Final Frontier

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Atomic 6 receives 2M Space Force award to advance next generation solar arrays
ESA and Neuraspace develop autonomous satellite navigation technologies
Planet secures 240 million euro satellite services contract with German government

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
London, Paris tighten nuclear bond over US, Russia concerns
Iran says cooperation with UN nuclear watchdog will take 'new form'
Six killed in massive Russian drone, missile attack across Ukraine

24/7 News Coverage
Ancient zircon data reveals tectonic origin of Earth's first continental crust
Autonomous sub explores unexplored trench depths to reveal critical mineral clues
Europe launches first geostationary atmospheric sounder to boost extreme weather forecasts



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.