NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced, on Thursday 30 June, that the protocol for Finland and Sweden to join the Alliance would be signed on Tuesday 5 July.
“The political decision, the real decision to invite Finland and Sweden to join NATO was taken at this summit on Thursday (see EUROPE 12982/1). We are going to formally sign the accession protocol on Tuesday, with the presence of the foreign ministers of Sweden and Finland”, said Mr Stoltenberg in front of the media.
According to the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, formal accession negotiations will start immediately.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the two Nordic countries had to do what was necessary first before Turkey could send the protocol to its national parliament. He added that he had requested 73 extraditions from these countries. On Monday evening, Ankara lifted its block on the accession of the two countries, in exchange for the countries’ actions on the fight against terrorism and the sale of arms.
Welcoming the future membership of the two Nordic countries with “a long tradition of neutrality”, US President Joe Biden said that while Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted “the ‘Finlandisation’ of NATO”, he had instead achieved “the ‘NATOisation’ of Finland”, meaning exactly the opposite. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)