SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Sweden, Finland hold accession talks at NATO HQ
Brussels, July 4 (AFP) Jul 04, 2022
The foreign ministers of Sweden and Finland were holding talks with NATO on Monday on formally starting the process to join the military alliance -- a historic step spurred by Russia's war in Ukraine.

The negotiations, led by Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde and Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto, were made possible after existing NATO member Turkey last week dropped objections.

Ambassadors from NATO's 30 member states were on Tuesday expected to sign the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland, opening a months-long period for alliance countries to ratify their membership.

In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, Sweden and Finland in parallel announced their intention to drop their military non-alignment status and become part of NATO.

A NATO summit in Madrid last week endorsed that move by issuing invitations to the two, after Turkey won concessions over concerns it had raised -- and a US promise it would receive new warplanes.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had accused Sweden and Finland of being havens for Kurdish militants he has sought to crush, and for promoting "terrorism".

He also demanded they lift arms embargoes imposed for Turkey's 2019 military incursion into Syria.

But Erdogan kept the rest of NATO on tenterhooks by saying he could still block Sweden and Finland's bids if they failed to follow through on their promises, some of which were undisclosed, such as possible extradition agreements.

Sweden's Linde tweeted that she was going to Brussels on Monday for the talks at NATO headquarters and would attend the ambassadors' signing on Tuesday.

A Finnish diplomat confirmed that Haavisto was also in the Belgian capital for the talks and Tuesday's signing.

The two foreign ministers were to give a media conference with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday.

rmb/arp/jv

LINDE


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Russian space chief to meet NASA head for first time in eight years
BlackSky to supply satellite imagery and analytics for Latin American security operations
Cascade raises 59M to develop full stack satellite communications platform

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Palantir, the AI giant that preaches US dominance
China and US wrap first day of trade talks
'Food on table' outweighs health risks for Philippine e-waste dismantlers

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
North Korea warns US against pushing it to give up nukes
Iran vows stronger response if attacked again by US, Israel
Ukraine says Russian attacks targeted western city, home to airfield

24/7 News Coverage
BAE Systems completes delivery of NOAA and NASA space weather satellites for fall launch
Building blocks of life found in distant star system suggest origins in interstellar space
Deep-sea fish confirmed as a significant source of ocean carbonate



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.