THE Finland and the Sweden are likely to submit application for membership in the NATO on May 16, according to European diplomatic imgs who spoke to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency.
The intention of the two countries is, according to the information of AMPE, the two countries, which are invited to the informal NATO Council of Foreign Ministers to be held in Berlin on 14 and 15 May, to announce that the next day (16 May) they will submit officially the their request for membership in the Euro-Atlantic Alliance.
Until the two Nordic countries finally decide to apply for membership in the Alliance, it should be expected that this will be accepted unanimously as both countries are already operating as quasi-Allies. The relevant statement of the Secretary General of NATO is also characteristic, Jens Stoltenberg, on April 27, who said that Finland and Sweden are “NATO’s closest partners” and that, if they decide to apply for membership, “NATO will welcome them with open arms” and “the accession process is expected to be quick and they will join immediately after the formal process is completed”.
European diplomatic imgs note that the typical procedure provided for under Article 10 of the NATO Treaty, in the case of Finland and Sweden will be hurried, without the need to submit a “Membership Action Plan”, as the two countries are fully adapted to the standards of the Euro-Atlantic Alliance. It is estimated that the whole accession process, until the signing of the Accession Protocol by the allied countries and after the ratifications by the national parliaments, will be completed by the end of the year. In the meantime, the two countries will probably have received observer status already before the NATO Summit, which will take place in Madrid on June 28-30.
As for the crucial interval between the application for membership of Finland and Sweden and the accession to the Alliance, a period of time that these two countries will not be covered by Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (CSTO), Helsinki and Stockholm are already holding bilateral consultations with individual strong Allies to secure security guarantees. In addition, Sweden and Finland can theoretically make use of the mutual assistance clause in Article 42.7 of the Treaty on European Union.
As diplomatic imgs commented on the AMPE, regarding the imminent application of the two Scandinavian countries to join NATO, “something that until last February seemed like a sci-fi scenario, seems to have already been launched with the process of urgencyconstituting one of the many profound and catalytic upheavals brought by Russian attack on Ukraine European security and the geopolitical balances of the system of international relations as a whole “
If the two Nordic countries join NATO, the Euro-Atlantic Alliance will have 32 member states, of which 23 will be EU countries.
Source: News Beast
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