Turkey is about to accept Finland's membership in NATO. The Finnish media report this unanimously. The Reuters news agency previously reported. Two Turkish officials told Reuters that Turkey's parliament will "most likely" ratify Finland's NATO bid before parliament goes into recess in mid-April - ahead of Turkey's May 14 elections. The Finnish newspaper "Iltalehti" reports, citing its own sources, that an exact date has not yet been set.

Helsinki newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, citing sources, reports that Turkey will most likely announce the ratification during President Sauli Niinistö's visit to Turkey.

Earlier, the Finnish President's Office announced that Niinistö would travel to Turkey at short notice on Thursday. He is scheduled to meet there with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday. Among other things, the membership of Finland and Sweden in NATO will also be discussed.

On Wednesday afternoon, Niinistö published a tweet commenting on the visit to Turkey. According to him, Turkey has made its decision on Finland's desire to join NATO. He accepted an invitation to Turkey for Friday to be present at the announcement of the decision. "It was known that when Turkish President Erdogan made his decision to ratify Finland's NATO membership, he would like to meet and fulfill his promise directly from president to president," he writes in his message.

In June, Finland, together with Sweden, applied for NATO membership in response to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. With the exception of Turkey and Hungary, all NATO member states have ratified the accession of Sweden and Finland. However, all 30 states must agree to the applications for membership.

Turkey had blocked the accession process for a long time. Ankara refers to an allegedly insufficient fight against "terrorist organizations" among the NATO candidates. However, these objections are mainly aimed at Sweden. There were serious diplomatic tensions between Stockholm and Ankara, which is why Turkey has not yet given the green light for Sweden to join NATO. This means that Finland could become a NATO member before its neighbor. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Tuesday that the probability of this had increased.

Sources: Office of the President of Finland, "Helsingin Sanomat", "Iltalehti", Reuters news agency, DPA news agency

Note: The article has been supplemented with President Niinistö's statement.