Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was questioned on this topic as he left the international headquarters of the Ismaili Imamat in Lisbon, where he took part in a ceremony this Tuesday.
“It is very good news,” replied the head of state, who on this occasion refused to make further statements to journalists on topics unrelated to the Ismaili community, led by Prince Aga Khan.
Sweden is still participating in the NATO summit that began this Tuesday in Vilnius as an observer country, but its entry into the alliance has moved closer, with the support of the governments of Turkey and Hungary, which have committed to their respective parliaments ratification of this accession.
“Our position is clear: the government supports Stockholm’s entry into the Atlantic Alliance,” said Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
In a statement released on Tuesday, ahead of his departure for the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, Hungary’s foreign minister added: “The completion of the ratification process is now just a technical matter.”
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his support for Sweden joining the Atlantic Alliance. In return, Stockholm assured that it would support Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union, including visa liberalization.
Portugal has been part of NATO since its creation in 1949. This political and military alliance was formed by, among others, the United States of America, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Norway. Greece and Türkiye joined in 1952. Hungary and Poland in 1999.
The last countries to join NATO were Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania in 2004, Albania and Croatia in 2009, Montenegro in 2017 and North Macedonia in 2020, and Finland in 2023.
With the accession of Finland, a neighbor of the Russian Federation, after more than a year of war in Ukraine that began with the Russian invasion of February 24, 2022, the Atlantic Alliance now has 31 member states.
Source: DN
