After meeting the leaders of both countries, Biden says that Sweden and Finland “meet all NATO requirements and a little more”.

US President Joe Biden has expressed his emphatic support for Sweden’s and Finland’s bid to join NATO in the middle of the war in Ukraine when he hosted the leaders of the two Nordic countries in Washington, DC.

Flanked by Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Biden told reporters on Thursday that Stockholm and Helsinki have Washington’s “total, complete support” in their application for NATO membership.

“They meet all of NATO’s requirements and more,” he said. “Having two new NATO members in the far north will increase the security of our alliances and deepen our security cooperation across the board.”

Sweden and Finland officially submitted applications to join NATO on Wednesday.

Although previously neutral, Swedish and Finnish leaders have cited fears of possible Russian aggression after Russia invaded Ukraine as the driving factor behind their efforts to join the US-led bloc.

NATO countries have a collective defense pact – Article 5 of the Treaty states that an attack on a member is considered an attack on all.

Biden announced that he would submit reports on NATO accession for the two countries to the Senate, so that legislators can approve the move “efficiently and quickly”.

As NATO operates under a formal treaty, the US Senate must approve new members with two-thirds of the votes in the 100-member Legislature. But with bipartisan support to expand the alliance, the application of European countries is not expected to be held back in Congress.

However, where their tenders are faced with problems, the unanimous approval of all 30 NATO members is required. Turkey has expressed opposition to allowing the two nations into the alliance.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated on Thursday that his government “will say no” to Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO bid. “We will continue to follow this path,” he said.

Turkey has accused European countries of harboring “terrorists”, citing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Gulen movement, which Ankara has said was behind the failed 2016 coup against Erdogan’s government.

On Thursday, Finland’s Niinisto as a NATO member said his country would commit to Turkey’s security.

“We take terrorism seriously,” Niinisto said. “We condemn terrorism in all its forms and we are actively committed to combating it. We are open to discussing any concerns Turkey may have about our membership in an open and constructive manner.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had met with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu at the UN on Wednesday, where both countries pledged to strengthen bilateral ties. On the same day, Biden said, “We will succeed,” when asked about Turkish objections to NATO’s expansion efforts.

In the White House on Thursday, all three leaders stressed that NATO is a defensive alliance that does not pose a threat to other nations, which implicitly addresses Russian concerns about the alliance’s growing reach.

Andersson, Sweden’s Prime Minister, said that the invasion of Ukraine forced her country to re-evaluate its historic freedom of alliance policy.

“Russia’s full-scale aggression against a sovereign and democratic neighbor, it was a watershed for Sweden,” she said. “And my government has come to the conclusion that the security of the Swedish people will be best protected within the NATO alliance.”