Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expects Sweden and Finland to officially join Nato in the new year, he told dpa in an end-of-year interview, scmp.com transmits.
Stoltenberg was not able to say when exactly this would happen. However, he said he was “absolutely confident that the ratification process will be finalised in a timely manner”.
Stoltenberg thereby made clear that he did not expect Turkey to block the admission process for much longer.
The easternmost member of the defence alliance has so far refused to ratify the so-called accession protocols in order to clear the way for Finland and Sweden to join Nato.
The Turkish leadership justifies its stance with the two states’ alleged support for “terrorist organisations” such as the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party, PKK.
But there is also speculation that arms exports put on hold by Nato partners could play a role. For example, the United States excluded Turkey from its F-35 fighter jet programme after the government in Ankara bought S-400 missile defence systems from Russia, despite considerable security concerns from Nato partners. Sweden and Finland applied for Nato membership in May as a result of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
By the end of June, it looked as if the dispute over Sweden and Finland’s alleged support for “terrorist organisations” had been settled.
Last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu said in a press conference with his Swedish counterpart Tobias Billström that they were “not even halfway there” in implementing the agreements.
