Monitoring Desk
STOCKHOLM: NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that he observed some “progress” in Finland and Sweden’s delayed bids to join the alliance, ahead of talks with Turkey set to resume this week.
Hungary and Turkey are the only NATO members still to endorse the bids of the two nations, which must be approved by all 30 members of the military alliance. Turkey had suspended talks with Finland and Sweden in outrage following protest demonstration in January.
Sweden and Finland
A fresh round of talks announced by Ankara last month will take place in Brussels on Thursday. The NATO Secretary General said on a trip to Sweden that they are making progress. He added that Stockholm “has delivered” on an agreement with Turkey signed last year that was meant to pave the grounds to NATO membership. The NATO Secretary General said that the time has come to finalize the process. However, Stoltenberg declined to speculate on the outcomes of the fresh talks this week.
The NATO chief hoped that Hungary’s parliament will also complete the process of approving the applications “shortly.”
Read Also: Turkey, Finland, Sweden to Hold Talks on NATO Accession
The development came as a visiting Hungarian parliamentary delegation said that politicians in Sweden need to stop spreading “lies” regarding Budapest.
Both Sweden and Finland dropped their decades-long policies of military non-alignment and wanted to join the NATO in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
