NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced Wednesday that he will soon travel to Turkey to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in order to advance the entry of Sweden and Finland into the military organization, with only Turkey and Hungary remaining to process the accession of Stockholm and Helsinki.
«I will go to Turkey myself in the near future. And we will do so to ensure that, as soon as possible, 30 Allies have ratified the Protocol of Accession, which will enable Finland and Sweden to become full members of the alliance,» he told a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
So far 28 members of the Atlantic Alliance have already ratified the protocol, confirmed Stoltenberg, who said that Hungary will carry out the parliamentary process in the autumn.
«So far, this has been the fastest accession process in NATO’s modern history,» said the former Norwegian prime minister, who praised the efforts of the Swedish and Finnish authorities to speed up the process and said he was confident that Turkey would move forward with ratification.
In particular, he supported the message of the new Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, to «work hard» to implement the three-way agreement reached between Sweden, Finland and Turkey and the visit he will make to Ankara to meet with Erdogan.
