The Assembly of the Republic this Friday ratified Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO, voting against the PCP and BE, joining the 26 Alliance members who have already done so.
The resolutions proposed by the government aimed at ratifying the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO were approved with favorable votes from PS, PSD, Chega, IL, PAN and Livre.
After the vote, the parties for this ratification rose from their seats and clapped their hands, addressing the ambassadors of these two countries who were present in the galleries. The PCP and BE delegates remained seated.
On Thursday, Spain and Greece ratified the two countries’ accession to NATO and now, with the approval of the Portuguese parliament, only three members of the Alliance remain, out of a total of 30, who have not yet done so: Slovakia , Turkey and Hungary.
The government’s draft resolutions on the subject – approved by the Council of Ministers on July 14 – were sent to the Assembly of the Republic on July 19, according to the parliament’s website, after being sent to the parliamentary committees for Foreign Affairs and Communities, Portuguese and National Defence.
Since the last plenary session before the parliamentary holiday was on 21 July, the relevant resolutions were sent to September.
In both texts – one devoted to Sweden, the other to Finland – the government presents the same arguments about the reasons justifying the accession of the two countries to the Atlantic Alliance.
According to the executive, led by the PS, both Finland and Sweden “currently fulfill the necessary conditions to join NATO, as a result of cooperation in various fields, within the parameters defined by the Alliance”.
The executive stresses that the accession of two European Union (EU) Member States to NATO “will contribute to strengthening the complementary relationship, in terms of security and defense, between the two organizations, while scrupulously respecting the principles which are laid down in the respective treaties “ingredients”.
“It will also contribute to strengthening the Atlantic Alliance as one of the key structures in the field of security and defense, which corresponds to two of the most important national foreign policy objectives,” reads the text in question, signed by the prime minister. Minister, António Costa, by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, João Gomes Cravinho, and by the Deputy Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Ana Catarina Mendes.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Sweden and Finland – two traditionally neutral countries – applied for NATO membership on May 28.
Following Turkey’s initial resistance, NATO heads of state or government, meeting at a summit in Madrid, officially invited Sweden and Finland to join the Alliance on 29 June.
In this sense, the accession protocols of the two countries were formally signed by the ambassadors of the 30 NATO member states on 5 July and now have to be ratified by the parliaments of all countries of the Atlantic Alliance and communicated to the United States government. to take effect.
Source: DN
