Today is a historic day in Brussels.
With the signing of the accession protocols "the ratification process begins" by the NATO allies, which will soon consist of 32 members after Finland and Sweden will officially join the Alliance.
Satisfaction from the secretary general Stoltenberg: "This is a historic day
for NATO, for Sweden and for Finland
: together we will be stronger and our populations safer".
After all, Soltenberg recalls “The Russian invasion broke the peace in Europe.
The allies moved quickly to make this historic day possible” and thanked Turkey, Sweden and Finland for "the constructive approach. I now trust in a rapid ratification process" by the parliaments of the allied countries".
From the
The Kremlin's response is timely
.
It is Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov who assures that "efforts" are underway to guarantee Russia's security, following a possible deployment of weapons or NATO bases in Finland and Sweden.
The Russian TASS reports it.
"These options are being examined, not by the Kremlin but by the defense ministry. There are the necessary plans, efforts are underway to guarantee our security", on the border with Russia, because it is there that new NATO bases will be set up defence.
It is truly "an historic moment" because today the "formal passage" takes place through which Sweden and Finland join NATO as invited countries.
"My personal satisfaction was being able to sign this document for Italy, which will remain".
This is the comment of
the Italian ambassador to NATO Francesco Maria Talò
.
"The foreign ministers of Sweden and Finland warmly thanked Italy for the support it has received in this process", added Talò, recalling the security guarantees given by Mario Draghi in the context of the NATO summit in Madrid together with other major countries such as the United States and Great Britain.
"Sweden and Finland - the ambassador notes - have distinguished themselves for having adopted a broad vision with respect to the 360-degree strategy, therefore the southern flank, and terrorism; and it is very important that two Northern European nations have this approach considering security as indivisible".
Speaking of terrorism, during the press conference alongside her Finnish colleague Pekka Haavisto, Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Linde underlined that there are no secret parts of the memorandum on the fight against terrorism signed with Turkey
and not even "a specific list" of individuals to be extradited
.
"The extradition authorities receive the requests and process them according to the procedures, then it is the High Court that takes the decision
. There can be no additional legal avenues, we will respect Swedish law and international law", he assured, underlining that however with Turkey "we will have more cooperation" against terrorism.
The moment is therefore historic for the countries of the North, but for the moment Kiev is standing by.
Yesterday the Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky remarked in Lugano
during the conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine that basically
"with our resistance to the Russian invasion we have reinvigorated Europe and NATO"
.
And in a speech to the Economist's annual round table today he affirms: "Ukraine is not in NATO. And when we tried to start the membership campaign, we received a negative response even to the request for an action plan for the accession. But this is not a reason to stop. We need a system of security guarantees, a safe space that can be effective even in conditions in which we are not in the