The accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO is not a bilateral issue between the United States and Turkey and is will not become one in the future, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday.
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th December, 2022) The accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO is not a bilateral issue between the United States and Turkey and is will not become one in the future, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday.
"This is not a bilateral issue between the United States and Turkey And it's not going to turn into one," Blinken said during a joint press conference with his Swedish and Finnish counterparts.
Blinken added he is confident that NATO will formally welcome Finland and Sweden as new members of the military alliance soon.
On May 18, three months after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine, Finland and Sweden submitted their applications for NATO membership. Out of the 30 NATO members, Hungary and Turkey have not approved the accession of the two new candidates to the military alliance.
On June 28, the Turkey, Finland and Sweden signed a trilateral memorandum to address Ankara's concerns so that it would agree to allow the latter two countries to become NATO members.
Last week, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said Hungary had promised to ratify Finland's and Sweden's NATO membership in early February.
