Launched in the summer of 2022, a few months after the start of the war in Ukraine, the NATO membership process for Sweden and Finland could be completed in 2023, according to Jens Stoltenberg.

“I expect (the accession will take place in 2023), but I will not guarantee the exact date, because it is of course a sovereign decision of the Turkish Parliament and the Hungarian Parliament, (which) have not yet ratified the agreement”, announced the Secretary General of NATO in an interview with AFP.

Hungary and especially Turkey have been blocking the entry of the two Nordic countries into NATO since May.

“We had negotiations, and they were quite demanding, in July last year, when Turkey, Finland and Sweden agreed on a joint memorandum in which they described how they could intensify their collaboration, at both with regard to arms exports, but also, for example, in the fight against terrorism”, recalled Jens Stoltenberg.

No fixed date

“Finland and Sweden have respected this agreement and are clearly committed to long-term cooperation with Turkey on these issues.

Therefore, the time has come to finalize the accession process and ratify the accession protocol,” he said.

A little earlier in the day, the Swedish Prime Minister had denounced certain requests from Turkey.

Ankara "also says that it wants things that we cannot and do not want to give it", underlined Ulf Kristersson during a conference on defense and security.

In December, the Swedish Supreme Court refused to extradite journalist Bülent Kenes as requested by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.



The Secretary General of NATO noted the speed of the accession process of the two countries.

“Of course, I would like it to be finalized as soon as possible.

But at the same time, it is a fast process compared to all NATO membership processes,” noted Jens Stoltenberg.

“I am convinced that it will happen, but I will be careful not to speculate on the exact moment when it will happen,” he concluded.

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