The next stage is the ratification by the parliaments of the NATO member countries of the accession protocol for the two Scandinavian countries.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says NATO leaders will formally invite Finland and Sweden to join the Alliance today.
According to an UNIAN correspondent, Stoltenberg said this at a briefing in Madrid before the start of the summit with the participation of the heads of state and government of the Alliance member states.
The Secretary General of the Alliance stressed that NATO leaders today will make a historic decision to invite Finland and Sweden to become members of the Alliance.
He noted that this will be possible thanks to the agreement reached by Finland and Sweden with Turkey yesterday, June 28. According to him, this agreement is good for all countries. In particular, Finland, Sweden and Turkey will cooperate more closely on information exchange, extradition and the common fight against terrorism.
“We will make a decision today at the summit to invite Finland and Sweden to become members,” Stoltenberg said.
He said it was an unprecedentedly fast process. “I think it’s hard to find any other accession process with so few weeks between the application, which happened in mid-May, and the invitation that takes place today,” Stoltenberg said.
He added that after the official invitation, the next stage is the ratification of the protocol on the accession of the two Scandinavian countries in the parliaments of 30 NATO member countries.
“This always takes a certain amount of time, but I expect it to happen fairly quickly, as the Allies are ready to go through this ratification process as soon as possible,” Stoltenberg added.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on June 28, Turkey, Sweden and Finland signed a tripartite memorandum regarding the applications of Stockholm and Helsinki to join NATO. Turkey has previously opposed the entry of these states into the Alliance. Turkish President Erdogan has spoken out against joining the two Scandinavian countries for what he called their support for “terrorist organisations,” referring to the outlawed PKK and the Syrian Kurds of the People’s Defense Units, known by their Kurdish acronym as YPG.
(C)UNIAN 2022
He said it was an unprecedentedly fast process. “I think it’s hard to find any other accession process with so few weeks between the application, which happened in mid-May, and the invitation that takes place today,” Stoltenberg said.
Yeah! 14 years Ukraine have been waiting and are still waiting, yet these 2 countries under no threat get to join with almost indecent haste.
Ukraine has always been an annoyance to the west beginning with the first asshole, Bush 1 who wanted Ukraine to stay with Russia in 1991. I’ve read some memoirs at the time and based on a number of these diaries and memoirs, I do thank Kravchuk who was cunning and made independence happen despite Bush.
Yeah, Bush I’s Chicken Kyiv speech still makes me sick.
Our last truly great president was Ronald Reagan. That’s too long ago already. All we manage to get as POTUS since then was dumbass losers.
It’s nice that Finland and Sweden will finally get NATO membership, even though they are presently and in the near future in no danger.
On the same note, had NATO given Ukraine a membership, many, many innocent people would still be alive right at this moment and many, many others, who will die soon, wouldn’t. That’s very sad and one of history’s great mistakes.
You seem to think they give a shit!!!! They don’t
Of course, they don’t. If they did, this war wouldn’t exist.