NATO’s Secretary General on Tuesday said progress is being made towards finalizing Sweden and Finland’s accession process to the Atlantic Alliance, pointing to Hungary’s “positive message” and talks resuming with Turkey.
At a press conference at the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels, following the reception of the President of Albania, Bajram Begaj, and the Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, who stressed that “completion of the accession process is a priority is for NATO” and for himself he rejoiced at what he called progress, admitting that “there is still a way to go”.
“I recently met President (Turkish Recep Tayyip) Erdogan and we agreed to restart talks. Later this week (Thursday) there will be a meeting here in Brussels where we will talk about the implementation of the Trilateral Memorandum of agreement agreed by Finland, Sweden and Turkey at the NATO summit last summer”he said.
Regarding the other allied country that has not yet ratified the accession of the two Nordic countries, Hungary, Stoltenberg noted that the delegation from the Hungarian Parliament that visited Sweden produced a report with “a positive message, recommending ratification “, something that should happen. at the end of the current month of March.
“We still have a way to go, but we are making progress and this remains the fastest ratification process in NATO’s modern history to date”he said, adding that it is necessary to bear in mind that “Sweden and Finland applied in May last year, and in the following month “all Allies, including Hungary and Turkey, invited the two countries” to join of the organization, “and everyone signed the accession protocols”, already ratified by 28 of the 30 allies. “I urge the two remaining allies to do this as soon as possible. The Hungarian parliament has announced a timetable for this at the end of this month and with the positive message from the parliamentary delegation I believe we are making progress.”insisted.
Sweden and Finland abandoned their traditional policy of military non-alignment and applied to join the Atlantic Alliance in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Initially, Turkey vetoed the expansion of the Atlantic Alliance as the two Nordic countries have a “highly tolerant” policy with Kurdish armed organizations, but at the NATO summit in Madrid in June 2022, Sweden, Finland and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding to unblock the situation, and its implementation will then be discussed next Thursday at a meeting in Brussels.
Source: DN
