Canadian parliament votes unanimously for Finland´s NATO joining

The Canadian parliament on Friday unanimously approved Finland´s NATO membership application.

“Canada strongly supports Sweden and Finland’s applications to join NATO. Today (Friday) in the House of Commons, Members of Parliament voted unanimously in favour of them joining the Alliance,” Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau wrote in a twitter post.

Prime Minister Sanna Marin expressed her gratitude to the Canadian Prime Minister for the support.

“Thank you for your strong support” Marin wrote in her writer thanking Trudeau.

Finland´s NATO membership, however, becomes uncertain following strong opposition from Turkey.

Earlier, Turkey said that it kept reservations over Finland´s NATO bid as the country expects Sweden and Finland to take concrete steps in this regard in exchange for Ankara's lift of objections to the two countries' NATO memberships, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.

Finland and Sweden decided to hold meetings with Turkey in Ankara to negotiate the issues regarding their NATO membership bids.

On 22 May, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto expressed his optimism about resolving the issues with Turkey regarding Finland´s NATO membership application.

On may 21, President Sauli Niinistö held a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and discussed Finland’s NATO membership application.

Earlier on May 16, Finland and Sweden formally submitted their applications for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

Turkey has been opposition the membership from before and after submission of the applications by Finland and Sweden.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on 13 May said that it was not possible for Turkey to support the possible NATO membership applications by Finland and Sweden.

Turkey has blocked discussions on Finland and Sweden's NATO accession hours after the countries officially launched their bids to join the alliance.

On 19 May, Erdogan said that Turkey would say "no" to Finland and Sweden's NATO membership bid, as the country would not make the same "mistake" again.