China News Service, September 23. According to a report by the US political news website Politico on the 22nd local time, the US ambassador to Finland predicted that Finland and Sweden will become full members of NATO before Christmas.

FILE PHOTO: Flags of Finland, NATO and Sweden.

  On July 5, the NATO Secretary-General, the Finnish and Swedish Foreign Ministers formally signed the protocol for Finland and Sweden to join NATO.

According to the procedures, NATO member states will approve the protocol according to their own procedures.

  On the 16th of this month, the Portuguese parliament approved Finland and Sweden to join NATO.

Currently, only Hungary, Slovakia and Turkey of the 30 NATO members have yet to ratify.

  Politico reports that Slovakia is expected to give the Nordic countries the green light to join NATO, while Hungary and Turkey, in general, will wait until 2023 to make a final decision.

But Douglas Hickey, the US ambassador to Finland, predicts that NATO will have 32 members by the end of the year.

  Hickey said talks with his Hungarian counterpart had convinced him that "there will be a positive vote soon", adding that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not want to be the only opponent, which would prompt him to move quickly on the issue Take action.

  According to previous reports, since Finland and Sweden expressed their intention to apply to join NATO in May this year, Turkey has clearly opposed it.

The Turkish side has repeatedly stressed that Finland and Sweden must stop supporting the PKK, the Syrian Kurdish armed "People's Protection Units" and the "Gulen Movement" when they seek to join NATO, and lift restrictions on Turkey's export of defense equipment.

  On June 28, Turkey loosened, and Turkey, Switzerland and Finland signed a joint memorandum at the NATO summit, emphasizing their commitment to "full support for each other's security threats".

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said again on July 18 that if Sweden and Finland do not take necessary measures to meet the conditions put forward by Turkey, Turkey will freeze the process of joining NATO between the two countries.