US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that he is "very confident" of seeing Sweden and Finland as new NATO members soon
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th November, 2022) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that he is "very confident" of seeing Sweden and Finland as new NATO members soon.
"I am very confident that Sweden and Finland will soon be formally new members of the alliance," Blinken said at a press availability in Bucharest, Romania.
He highlighted that 28 of the 30 alliance members had ratified the protocols related to the accession of Sweden and Finland "with remarkable speed."
Turkey, Sweden and Finland are engaging, along with NATO, to make sure that all of Ankara's concerns are "fully addressed," he noted.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday that he had discussed with his Finnish and Sweden counterparts, Pekka Haavisto and Tobias Billstroem, in Bucharest steps toward their admission into NATO.
On June 28, the three countries signed a trilateral memorandum, which addressed Turkey's concerns over NATO's membership of Sweden and Finland.
Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership in May. As of now, only Turkey and Hungary have not ratified the accession of the two nations.
