NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that the organization plans to act swiftly on the process of allowing Sweden and Finland to join.
“I warmly welcome the requests by Finland and Sweden to join NATO. You are our closest partners,” he said. “All allies agree on the importance of NATO enlargement. We all agree that we must stand together, and we all agree that this is a historic moment which we must seize.”
As reported by Just the News, NATO ambassadors to Sweden and Finland submitted the applications Tuesday against the will of Russia, which has threatened to respond to such a move. The applications were the direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Once the membership process is complete, which will likely take several months, the countries will benefit from NATO’s Article 5 security guarantee, which pledges that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all members.
NATO is determined to make what is typically a year-long process into a faster one, given the potential threat of aggression facing the Nordic countries.
