NATO formally invited Finland and Sweden to join the Alliance

At the Madrid NATO Summit, Sweden and Finland were formally invited to join the Alliance.

This message appeared on the NATO website.

“We reaffirm our commitment to NATO’s Open Door Policy. Today, we have decided to invite Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO, and agreed to sign the Accession Protocols,” the statement reads.

It is stated that in any accession to the Alliance, it is of vital importance that the legitimate security concerns of all the Allies are properly addressed.

In addition, they welcomed the conclusion of the trilateral memorandum between Türkiye, Finland, and Sweden to that effect. Their joint memorandum underscores the commitment of countries to extend their full support against threats to each other’s security.

It was this document that testified to Türkiye’s readiness to support the accession of the Scandinavian countries to the Alliance.

“The accession of Finland and Sweden will make them safer, NATO stronger, and the Euro-Atlantic area more secure,” the statement reads.

As previously reported, the decision of Sweden and Finland to apply for the membership in the North Atlantic Alliance was made amid Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Joining NATO will end a decade of Finnish neutrality and approximately 200 years of Swedish neutrality.

Türkiye had been opposing their accession to the Alliance and demanded that Sweden, in particular, would provide “concrete guarantees” in accordance with the “collective security principle” of the North Atlantic Alliance.

This regarded stopping the “political, military, and financial support for terrorist organizations.” This concerned the support of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK / PYD).