Spain ratifies Finland’s and Sweden’s membership in NATO
The Diplomat
Spain’s ambassador to the US, Santiago Cabanas, presented the instruments of ratification that approved Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO on Wednesday at the US State Department.
“We are firmly committed to NATO and to European and Euro-Atlantic security, and we welcome this important step to strengthen the alliance,” the Spanish embassy in Washington reported on its official Twitter account.
In September last year, the two chambers approved the signing of the protocols to the North Atlantic Treaty on the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO.. In Congress, the text was approved with the votes of the PSOE, Partido Popular, Vox, Ciudadanos, PNV, PDeCat and JxCAT, abstaining from the other government partner, Unidas Podemos, in addition to the Minister of Consumer Affairs and the federal coordinator of the IU, Alberto Garzón. In the Senate, given that none of the parties that had voted no in the Congress are represented in the upper house, the text passed with a very large majority of votes in favor, with the only abstentions from the ERC, Bildu and some parties of the confederal left ( Más Madrid, Compromís and Més). Unidas Podemos has no representation in the Senate.
The two countries presented their membership application last May to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, and their entry was agreed at the end of June, during the Alliance Summit in Madrid. The permanent representatives of the 30 allies (including Spain) signed the accession protocols for the two countries on 5 July in Brussels, after which they must be ratified by the parliaments of all NATO member states as a necessary condition for Finland and Sweden to join the Alliance. The US Congress followed on August 9.