Sweden and Finland have taken another step towards joining NATO, meaning that now all that remains is the formal ratification of their accession agreement.
Anatolian Agency | Anatolian Agency | Getty Images
On Tuesday, Finland and Sweden took a step closer to full NATO membership with the official signing of the accession agreement with the military alliance.
Their upcoming NATO membership is closely watched as it marks a major shift not only in their security policies but also in the overall defense architecture in Europe. Both countries had taken a neutral stance toward Russia for most of their recent history, but the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine prompted them to take a new direction.
“Finland and Sweden will make a strong and important contribution to our Alliance. Our forces are interoperable. They have trained, exercised and served together for many years,” Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, said on Tuesday after the signings.
The accession of Finland and Sweden was thrown into doubt after Turkey raised concerns about their membership. Turkey wanted guarantees that Sweden and Finland would not support groups designated as terrorist organizations by the government in Ankara.
Talks in the Spanish capital Madrid last week helped the three nations reach an agreement. This meant that Turkey lifted its veto on the accession of Helsinki and Stockholm and paved the way for further progress in their bids.
Since then, detailed negotiations have taken place to determine the terms of their membership and have been concluded in record time.
According to Stoltenberg, this is “the fastest accession process in the history of NATO so far”. Both nations requested to join the alliance in May.
There is now one final step before their membership becomes active: the ratification of the accession agreement by all NATO nations. It is not clear how long that will take, as different countries have different procedures for ratifying the agreement, but Stoltenberg said it would be a matter of “months”.
However, despite the recent agreement with Ankara, there are some concerns about a potential last-minute ratification issue from Turkey.
The country’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said on Tuesday that if Finland and Sweden do not honor their agreement, his country will not admit them to the alliance.
The foreign ministers of Finland and Sweden said on Tuesday they hoped for swift ratification of their accession agreement.
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