Stoltenberg officially invited Finland and Sweden to NATO

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that formally invites Finland and Sweden to join NATO.

People’s Deputy Oleksiy Goncharenko wrote about this in his Telegram channel.

“We invite Finland and Sweden to join the Alliance,” Stoltenberg said at a summit in Madrid.

The path to NATO

• Without a doubt, the US Senate will support the application of Sweden and Finland to join the North Atlantic Alliance. However, this process was hampered by Turkey.
• As early as May 16, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted that his country could not say yes to Finland and Sweden joining NATO because of the Kurdish issue.
• According to The Financial Times, citing an informed source, on May 18, Ankara blocked the start of consideration of applications from these countries under the accelerated procedure.
• This position of Turkey is very pleasing to Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin has threatened that the plans of Finland and Sweden to join NATO will cause a “backlash” from the Kremlin.

• As a result, on June 28, following the results of the talks in Madrid, Turkey agreed to unblock the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO.

What to expect from the NATO summit in Madrid

The NATO summit takes place in Madrid (Spain) on June 28-30. It is expected that the North Atlantic Alliance will decide to increase the size of the Rapid Reaction Force eight times (up to 300,000), and also identify Russia as the main threat. Poland will ask for an increase in NATO presence on its territory due to Russian aggression.

Jens Stoltenberg has previously assured that the allies are ready to provide additional military support to Ukraine, and NATO members intend to accept a “strengthened comprehensive assistance package”, including the supply of secure communications systems and defense against drones.

According to Stoltenberg, the countries of the Alliance undertake to ensure a strong position for Ukraine in the upcoming negotiations with Russia.