Finland’s defense ministry said Wednesday the country had issued the first commercial export license for military material to Turkey since 2019 — a key demand for Ankara to approve Helsinki’s NATO bid.
Riikka Pitkanen, special adviser at the ministry, told AFP that the export license granted concerned steel that would be used for armor.
Finland had suspended new licenses 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 defense minister’s decision was immediately criticized 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.