Finland and Sweden are coming closer to NATO membership with acquisition sign-off

July 6, 2022: -On Tuesday, Finland and Sweden moved closer to becoming full members of NATO by formally signing their accession agreement with the military Alliance. Their upcoming NATO membership have been closely followed as it marks a significant shift in their protection policies and the overall defense architecture in Europe. Rare countries had adopted a neutral stance toward Russia for most of their recent history, but the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine forced them to carry a unique direction.

“Finland and Sweden will make strong and important contributions to our Alliance. Our forces are interoperable. They are conveying trained, wielded, and served together for many years,” Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary-general, said after the signatures on Tuesday.

Finland and Sweden’s accession had been doubted after Turkey raised concerns regarding their memberships. Turkey wants guarantees that Sweden and Finland would not support companies designated as terrorist organizations by the country in Ankara.

Last week, talks in Madrid’s Spanish capital allowed the three nations to agree. This suggested that Turkey lifted its veto on the accession of Helsinki and Stockholm and paved the way for more progress in their bids.

Since then, complex negotiations have brought the place to establish the terms of their memberships, and they have been concluded in record time.

Stoltenberg states this is the “fastest accession process in NATO’s history so far.” Both nations are requesting to join the Alliance in May.

There is now one final step before their memberships are active: all the NATO nations approving the accession agreement. It is unclear the reason long that will take as different countries have different procedures to approve the deal, but Stoltenberg said this would be “months.”

However, despite the recent deal with Ankara, there are few concerns about a potential last-minute hiccup with Turkey’s ratification.

The foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said on Tuesday that if Finland and Sweden do not comply with their agreement, then his government would not let them into the Alliance.

On Tuesday, Finland and Sweden’s foreign affairs ministers said they hope for swift ratification of their accession deal.