Madam Minister, on Tuesday the Finnish Parliament supported your country's path to NATO with a large majority.

A good day for Finland?

Matthias Wysuwa

Political correspondent for northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.

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As Finns we are always very pragmatic and we take everything very seriously.

Of course, after the intensive debates of the past few weeks, such a clear mandate from Parliament for the accession negotiations was something very strong.

It was a clear sign that we Finns are very clear: we want to join NATO and we also have a lot to offer NATO.

There's no doubt about that for us.

But this day also had something very serious, something sad.

After all, there is a war in Europe without which this decision on Tuesday would not have been made.

We have now taken a step forward and towards NATO, but now more work is needed.

Even before this decision, your government did a lot of work to find out how much support there is from the 30 NATO countries in order to keep the time in the gray area between application and admission as short as possible.

Now you have submitted the application and Turkey has blocked it.

Yes, we understand that the accession of a new member state to NATO requires a basic political evaluation and a unanimous decision of all 30 member states.

This means that we also need a yes from Turkey.

This is not our decision, but Turkey's decision.

We have to be patient and openly discuss that we have nothing against Turkey.

Our bilateral relationship has been very good for a long time.

I believe in the end we can solve this situation.

Of course it was a bit of a disappointment that there were such objections right at the beginning of the process.

But our President Sauli Niinistö was in Washington and we are very grateful for the support from America.

Things may also need to be clarified between America and Turkey.

But with all your government's attempts to gauge how NATO countries feel about your bid, did you get any inkling that there might be a problem?

Or was that completely unexpected?

It wasn't totally unexpected, but it's still disappointing.

We assume that NATO's open-door policy applies, we have been told this again and again.

So now it is a matter for the whole Alliance to resolve this situation.

This is not a bilateral issue between Turkey and Finland alone.

The open door policy is the policy of the whole Alliance.

Does the objection from Turkey, the criticism of alleged PKK supporters and YPG fighters, give you the feeling that Finland and Sweden are really at stake?

Or is it something else?

I can not say that.

It will take a few more days and a lot of patience and we are ready to continue negotiating.

All questions must be solved at the end.

With the support that we have received from America, from Great Britain, but also from Germany, we are confident.

That was a great relief for us.

In the end, it's a question of credibility for the whole alliance.

Nevertheless, Finland is now stuck in precisely this gray area.

How nervous does that make you looking towards Russia?