“At the Summit last week, Allied leaders agreed to invite Finland and Sweden to join the Alliance. NATO Ambassadors have just signed the Accession Protocols for Finland and Sweden”…”I now count on all Allies to ensure the speedy ratification of the Accession, according to their national procedures”, this announced Jens Stoltenberg (Secretary General of NATO after the signing of the protocol by the Ambassadors from the 30 State members of the Alliance at NATO headquarters in the presence of Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto and Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde.
From now on and till the 30 Allie’s parliaments ratify the Accession Protocol, Finland and Sweden will have the status as “invitees”, and will participate in NATO discussions along with the State members.
Fatest accession procedure in NATO’s history but It will take probably some months till Finland and Sweden become members
“…the accession protocols that were signed today have to be ratified in 30 national parliaments and different countries have different procedures. And therefore, I’m very careful predicting exactly how fast this may go. But what we have seen is that many Allies have prepared themselves, many parliaments have already declared that they’re ready to do this very quickly. And, therefore I count on Allies to deliver a quick and swift and smooth ratification process. Last time we have a similar ratification process in the in the parliaments it took around 12 months, or a year. So again, I’ll not tell you exactly, but we speak about months, and I welcome the fact that many Allies have already started and announced that they will do this quicker than normal because they will see the importance of a quick accession process. Let me also add that as Minister Linde, Ann Linde, just referred to, so far this has gone very quickly. This is the fastest accession process in NATO’s history so far, because there are only seven weeks since the applications were submitted to NATO until the signing of the accession protocols and the political agreement last week in Madrid. The next step will be the ratification and that is for parliaments to finally decide.”
Image over the headline.- Press conference by NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland, Pekka Haavisto -left- and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Ann Linde following the signature of the NATO Accession Protocols for Finland and Sweden.© NATO
Related Eastwind links:
Memorandum of understanding between Finland, Sweden and Turkey at NATO Madrid Summit
Finland and Sweden will be invited to become members of the Nato with the agreement of Turkey
Finland and Sweden, will be invited to become members of the NATO with Turkey’s agreement
NATO launches €1Bn 15 year frame NATO Innovation Fund
