To quote every person in Star Wars, I have a bad feeling about this.
The talks with the Turkish president had been going around in circles for hours on Tuesday afternoon when the delegations decided to take a breather.
At stake was whether Sweden and Finland would be able to move forward with their applications to join NATO and ahead of the meeting their expectations had been limited. Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan was reiterating his demands that his counterparts from Stockholm and Helsinki crack down on Kurdish groups that Ankara views as terrorists in order to lift his veto on their accession. That looked politically impossible.
"During the first two hours, nothing moved," Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said in an interview. "But then there was a coffee break."
I mean, look, we knew that coffee can put a smile on your face first thing in the morning. We've known that for like a few thousand years.
Now we know that it can literally solve international conflicts:
When they returned to the negotiating table, the two sides managed to hammer out a way for the two Nordic countries to address Erdogan's security concerns that was palatable for both sides.
"Sweden and Finland were able to explain our work against terrorism and how we have tightened legislation and will continue to strengthen it," Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said in an interview.
"During the coffee break there's always a possibility to use a bit of creativity and find language that suits everyone," Haavisto added. "We succeeded on that."
You know what I think happened? I think Andersson's boys managed to sneak some of that sweet Gevalia house blend into the coffee pot of the NATO break room. The Swedes know how to play to their advantages, and Swedish coffee is one of them. That's what did it.
At least, that will give me someone to blame when these countries join NATO and WWIII kicks off. 👇
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