The US Ambassador expressed confidence that Finland and Sweden will be admitted to NATO before the end of the year
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US Ambassador to Helsinki Douglas Hickey, in an interview with journalists and experts, admitted that Finland and Sweden will join NATO before the end of 2022, transmits Politico newspaper.
According to the publication, only three countries out of 30 remained to ratify the agreement on the entry of the two countries into the alliance – Slovakia, Hungary and Turkey. Slovakia is expected to approve the initiative. Speaking about Hungary and Turkey, the newspaper notes that these countries have taken a “wait and see attitude” until 2023. Thus, Turkey may not make a final decision until June 2023, the end of the presidential elections.
At the same time, Hickey gives much more positive forecasts. By the end of 2022, NATO will have 32 members, he said. The ambassador believes that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will not want to be in the position of “the only one who disagrees” and will speed up a decision on this issue.
Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO in mid-May amid Russia’s special operation in Ukraine. The accession of countries to the alliance was blocked by Turkey, because Helsinki and Oslo supported the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is recognized as terrorist in Turkey. However, on June 28, the foreign ministers of the three countries signed a memorandum of understanding, which confirmed Ankara’s support.
At the end of June, the NATO leadership decided to invite Sweden and Finland to the alliance. A week later, the Foreign Ministers of Finland and Sweden, Pekka Haavisto and Ann Linde, and the ambassadors of 30 NATO member countries signed protocols on the accession of the two countries to the North Atlantic Alliance. Later accession of Finland and Sweden to the alliance approved US House of Representatives. In August, US President Joe Biden signed the protocols.
Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Russia does not have such problems with Finland and Sweden as with Ukraine, so Moscow does not worry about the membership of these states in NATO. He clarified that the situation will change if military bases and NATO weapons appear in Finland. Putin stressed that in this case, Russia would have to respond in the mirror. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the decision of Finland and Sweden was dictated by the United States.
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