Finland, Sweden could join NATO quickly: Stoltenberg
Finland and Sweden will quickly be able to join NATO if they decide to apply for membership in the Western military alliance, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday.
“If they decide to apply, Finland and Sweden will be warmly welcomed and I expect the process to go quickly,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels, adding that he planned to speak to the Finnish president later in the day.
He said he was confident that arrangements could be made for the interim period between an application from the two Scandinavian countries and the formal ratification in parliament by all 30 NATO members.
“I am convinced that there are ways to bridge that interim period in a way that is good enough and works for both Finland and Sweden,” said Stoltenberg.
Despite closer co-operation with the military alliance since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the Nordic countries have since chosen to stay out.
But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is called a “special operation”, has forced Sweden and Finland to investigate whether their long-standing military neutrality is still the best way to ensure national security.
The two countries will jointly express their desire to join NATO next month, the tabloid newspapers Iltalehti in Finland and Expressen in Sweden reported on Monday.
Russia, with which Finland shares a border of 1,300 kilometers (810 kilometers), has said it will deploy nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad if Finland and Sweden decide to join NATO.