NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed Tuesday that Sweden and Finland have been hand in hand throughout the NATO accession process, after Helsinki opened the door to moving forward alone because of Turkey’s blocking of Stockholm’s aspirations.
In statements collected by Europa Press, Stoltenberg recalled the joint steps of Swedes and Finns throughout the process of joining the organization. «Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO at the same time. The 30 allies invited both countries to join last June, and 28 have already ratified their accession protocols,» he explained.
Sweden and Finland depend on the approval of the 30 member states of the Atlantic Alliance to join, a ratification that has advanced in record time but remains to be processed in Turkey and Hungary.
In this regard, the former Norwegian prime minister stressed that this is the fastest accession process in NATO’s recent history and emphasized that the entry of both is a «priority» for the Atlantic Alliance. Both participate in NATO meetings, sit at the allies’ table and are integrated in the consultation groups and military activities, he insisted.
«I look forward to their full membership in NATO, which is in everyone’s interest,» Stoltenberg concluded, in remarks that come after Finland for the first time opened the door to considering membership without Sweden, due to Turkey’s continued reluctance.
On Tuesday, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto called for a rethink of the strategy of moving forward together if necessary. «We have to be prepared to reassess the situation,» he said in statements to the Finnish public television channel, Yle.
The latest clash with Ankara is the recent burning of a Koran during a demonstration in the Swedish capital, after which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan argued that Stockholm should not wait for his country’s support to join NATO, an issue he has been blocking by his request that Sweden extradite people allegedly linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
