NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that "relentless efforts" were being made to ensure that Turkey and Hungary ratified as soon as possible the accession of Sweden and Finland to the alliance, but he did not rule out the two countries joining separately.

The parliaments of all 30 member states of the alliance must ratify the membership of Finland and Sweden before joining the alliance, but Turkey and Hungary have not yet ratified this.

Turkey had hinted that it might give the green light to Finland's bid to join the alliance without Sweden.

Stoltenberg said before a meeting of NATO members in Brussels that the ratification of the accession of Finland and Sweden at the same time is not the main issue, but the ratification of their full membership as soon as possible, adding that he is confident that each of them will be a full member.

For her part, German Foreign Minister Annalina Baerbock said during a visit to Stockholm on Tuesday that the two countries should be included in the alliance before the NATO summit in July in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.

She added, in press statements, that Sweden and Finland meet the conditions that were agreed upon in Madrid, "so it is very important for NATO as a whole that the two countries be able to join before the next summit."


join conjunction

Officials of the two Scandinavian countries have stressed their desire to join the alliance simultaneously, but an opinion poll showed earlier this month that a majority of Finns want to join NATO if Sweden's membership is delayed.

For his part, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christson said that joining separately would be "a pity".

Finland and Sweden, which have common borders with Russia, abandoned the decades-old military non-alignment they had pursued and asked to join NATO last May, following the Russian war on Ukraine.

Turkey refused to ratify the two requests for membership, primarily because of Sweden's refusal to hand over dozens of people whom Ankara suspects of being linked to Kurdish fighters and an attempted coup in 2016.

Ankara also responded angrily to a decision by the Swedish police to give permission to organize a demonstration during which a right-wing extremist burned a copy of the Noble Qur’an in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm last month.


Turkish position

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan clearly distinguished between the positions of Sweden and Finland in the past months, and said, "We can give a different response" to Helsinki.

Commenting on Erdogan's statements, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said that his country should study the possibility of joining the alliance without Sweden.

Minister Haavisto added - in televised statements - that the simultaneous accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO remains the "first option", but "we must of course assess the situation, and study whether what happened will prevent - in the long run - Sweden from moving forward," considering at the same time that " It's too early to take a stand."

Sweden and Finland hold the status of invited members to join the alliance, which means their great integration with NATO, according to Agence France-Presse.

The two countries also received security guarantees from a number of NATO member states such as the United States and Britain, pending full membership.