Sweden and Finland have gone one step further in joining NATO, meaning that now only a formal ratification of their accession agreement remains.
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Finland and Sweden on Tuesday moved one step closer to full NATO membership with the formal signing of their accession agreement to the military alliance.
Their upcoming NATO membership has been closely watched as it marks a major shift in not only their security policies but also the overall defense architecture in Europe. Both countries have adopted a neutral stance towards Russia for most of their recent history, but for no reason Invasion of Ukraine pushed them in a new direction.
“Finland and Sweden will make a strong and important contribution to our Union. Our forces can interact with each other. They have trained, trained and served together for many years.” , Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General said Tuesday after the signatures.
The accession of Finland and Sweden was questioned after Turkey raised concerns about their membership. Turkey wants assurances that Sweden and Finland will not support groups designated by the Turkish government as terrorist organizations.
Negotiations in the Spanish capital Madrid last week helped the three nations reach an agreement. This means that Turkey has lifted its veto on joining Helsinki and Stockholm, and paved the way for more progress in their bids.
Since then, detailed negotiations have taken place to establish the terms of their membership and they were concluded in record time.
According to Stoltenberg, this is “the fastest accession process in NATO’s history to date.” Both countries requested to join the union in May.
There is still one final step before their membership becomes operational: the ratification of the accession agreement by all NATO countries. It’s unclear how long it will take as different countries have different procedures for ratifying the deal, but Stoltenberg said it will be a question of “several months.”
However, and despite the recent agreement with Ankara, there is some concern about the possibility of a last-minute hiccup with Turkish ratification.
The country’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said on Tuesday that if Finland and Sweden failed to comply with their agreement, his country would not allow them to join the union.
The foreign ministers of Finland and Sweden on Tuesday said they hoped to quickly ratify the accession agreement.
