NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg unveiled a new plan on Thursday where he seeks to swiftly have Finland and Sweden join and become members of the military alliance despite opposition from some parties.
The secretary-general aims to have the two nations become a part of NATO when United States President Joe Biden and his global counterparts meet in July for their next summit.
Finland's and Sweden's NATO Applications
Both Finland and Sweden decided to abandon their traditional positions of military neutrality and seek protection under NATO's security umbrella due to fears that they could become the next target of Russia following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
All 30 allies have signed Finland's and Sweden's accession protocols, and almost all have since ratified those texts. However, Turkey and, more recently, Hungary have demanded guarantees and assurances from the new nations before they finalize their support for their membership. As per ABC News, this has caused a stalemate in the proceedings because all NATO members must agree unanimously for Finland and Sweden to become members.
On Thursday, representatives from Finland and Sweden met with their Turkish counterparts at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Stoltenberg was the one who organized the talks after he convinced Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to come back to the table last month.
When he opened the meeting, the NATO chief said that the two Nordic neighbors had already taken unprecedented steps to address legitimate security concerns of the Turkish government. He added that it was not time for all NATO allies to conclude the ratification process and have Finland and Sweden join as members.
The three parties agreed that "rapid ratifications" for the two Nordic neighbors would align with everyone's interests and that the two countries becoming members of NATO would only strengthen the alliance.
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Turkey's and Hungary's Opposition
In a statement, Stoltenberg said that the situation was a process and did not expect it to be concluded with only one round of negotiations. However, he noted that he was confident that Finland and Sweden would soon become NATO allies as it is their top priority, according to Yahoo News.
The situation was in a stalemate after Turkey accused the Swedish government of being too lenient on groups it believed were terror organizations or existential threats, including the Kurdish groups.
On the other hand, Sweden has been acting seemingly tough on the matter, and Thursday, presented a new draft law to parliament that sought to make it illegal to support or participate in terrorist organizations. No date was scheduled for the vote for the proposed bill that was announced.
Separately, Finland's 200-member Parliament had 184 voting in favor of NATO membership, seven were against, and one abstained. The country's leaders also took up the vote before elections scheduled in April for a new Parliament to avoid any potential delay.
Finland was the one that pushed Sweden to apply to join the military alliance following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Despite Turkey's opposition to Sweden's application and demands of legislative change, it has few if any problems with Finland joining NATO said the New York Times.
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