Caroline Baudry, edited by Yanis Darras
Finland and Sweden submitted their applications to join NATO this morning. The two countries must now convince the members of their compatibility with the Atlantic Alliance and demonstrate that they will respect Article 5 of NATO. If the boss of the organization, Jens Stoltenberg, has promised a rapid process, Turkey continues to oppose the entry of the two countries.
It’s official. Finland and Sweden have just submitted their applications to join NATO. After the filing of these candidatures, the accession talks begin. Two meetings at NATO headquarters in Brussels will take place shortly. It will allow the candidates to convince the representatives of the 30 member countries that they are compatible with the Alliance in terms of rights, resources and that they are ready to commit if one of the member countries is attacked. A rule widely known as Article 5, founding NATO.
Anderson Adlercreutz is elected here to the Finnish Parliament. For him, this stage could be completed in a few days: “What we often say is that we are more compatible with NATO than many NATO countries. Another point is that: Finland, we “Let’s bring nuclear capabilities to NATO. We’re a security provider, not a security consumer. And we really believe NATO will be better off bringing in Finland and Sweden.”
Turkey’s opposition
After this stage of the talks, the ratification process will begin. The Parliaments of each Member State will have to approve the request. This can take several months, even a year according to this elected official. But NATO boss Jens Stoltenberg has promised a quick process and security guarantees to Finland and Sweden, which he says he welcomes with open arms.
Promises that could be difficult to keep because the main obstacle seems to come from Turkey. The country, also a member of NATO, reaffirmed Monday its hostility to the entry of the two Scandinavian countries into the Alliance, despite diplomatic discussions over the weekend.