Fred Fleitz to Newsmax: Biden Must Push Turkey on Sweden, NATO

Now that Finland has become a NATO member, the Biden administration must pressure Turkey to “quit playing games” and allow Sweden to join the alliance as well, Fred Fleitz, a former chief of staff of the National Security Council, said on Newsmax Wednesday.

Finland’s membership had been on hold for a year “because Turkey and Hungary dragged their feet,” Fleitz, the vice chairman of the America First Policy Institute Center for American Security, commented to Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.”

“We understand why Turkey is delaying the membership of Sweden. They have differences over the PKK, which [Sweden] considers a Turkish terrorist group. But Hungary is playing these political games, keeping both nations out because they’re trying to negotiate with the EU,” he added.

Finland’s new NATO membership is also a “bad thing” for Russia because that means the alliance has “just doubled its border with Russia,” said retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt, who appeared on Newsmax with Fleitz.

“That’s the exact thing that Vladimir Putin was trying to avoid,” said Holt, a Newsmax contributor and former deputy military adviser for NATO. “But we also gained a very formidable player. When I worked at NATO and throughout my Air Force career, the Finns had nothing but a highly professional, very capable military.”

Fleitz added that Finland joined NATO knowing that Russia would threaten retaliation.

“This is a huge endorsement of the NATO alliance,” he said. “Finland has more artillery than Germany, Poland, and Hungary combined. It has a sizeable military force, and a much larger border with Russia.”

However, Fleitz said he doesn’t believe any Russian retaliation will “come to anything.”

Holt, meanwhile, said he doesn’t know what Finland will contribute monetarily as part of NATO.

“When I was sitting at NATO we would talk about Finland and Sweden if they came in they would already be meeting the tuition requirements as members of NATO,” Holt said. “Finland is interested in increasing defense spending. They’re shifting their government to a more conservative place.”

He added, though, that the government shift could mean Finland will be an active member of NATO but still would not “rubberstamp everything that the alliance wants to do.”

Meanwhile, Fleitz said he is hoping for increased pressure from NATO on the Biden administration to come up with a peace plan for Ukraine and Russia.

“China has one, Ukraine has one, I think the French and the Germans and the Brits may have one soon,” he said. “Congress wants to know from Biden how this will end.”

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