Sweden should join NATO as soon as possible and before the alliance’s summit in Vilnius, scheduled for the first half of July, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeld said at a briefing on Wednesday.
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“Sweden should become a full member of NATO as soon as possible and before the summit in Vilnius in July. With the unification of the Nordic region into NATO, the alliance will become even stronger,” Huitfeld said.
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She also said that Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström will attend an informal meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers, which is being held in Oslo from May 31 to June 1.
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Finland and Sweden, against the background of the events in Ukraine in May last year, submitted applications to the NATO Secretary General to join the alliance. For admission to the alliance, the approval of all its members is required. At first, Turkey blocked the application process, but on June 29, Turkey, Sweden and Finland signed a security memorandum, which, according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, takes into account all Ankara’s concerns related to the fight against terrorism and restrictions on the supply of weapons.
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Until the beginning of 2023, the applications of Sweden and Finland were ratified by 28 out of 30 NATO countries. However, Hungary and Turkey wished to consider the Swedish application separately from the Finnish one. On the night of March 31, the ratification of the Finnish application to NATO by all members of the alliance was completed. Sweden’s application has not yet received Hungarian and Turkish approval.
