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The 30 ambassadors of NATO countries signed on Tuesday in Brussels the accession protocols of Finland and Sweden, a key step towards their membership of the Alliance, although they will not become full members until the accession process is completed.
The signing took place in the presence of the foreign ministers of Finland, Pekka Haavisto, and Sweden, Ann Linde, NATO said in a statement.
Before the signing of the protocols, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg highlighted that with the future entry of Finland and Sweden into the Alliance, they will be even stronger.
He stressed that the event is truly a historic moment for Finland, for Sweden, and for NATO.
“We did what we always do in NATO. We found common ground,” he said.
Just yesterday, the two Nordic countries completed accession negotiations at NATO headquarters in Brussels, and today the signing of the accession protocols of the two states by the ambassadors of the 30 current NATO members is taking place.
The protocols must be then ratified at the national level in the thirty countries of the transatlantic organization.
NATO’s principle of collective defense, according to which an attack on one ally is equivalent to an attack on all of them and a joint response must be made, will only apply to Finland and Sweden when they have become full members of the Alliance, once the entire accession process has been completed.
