According to the statement, NATO leaders agreed to formally invite Finland and Sweden to join the alliance after Turkey made an agreement with the two Scandinavian countries to voice its objections to their membership.
“Today we decided to invite Finland and Sweden to join NATO and agreed to sign accession protocols,” the alliance said in a statement at the Madrid summit.
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the “consensus” reached on Wednesday. He said, according to a quote from the Élysée Palace, that the entry of two countries with strong potential “into NATO” “would greatly contribute to the security of all allies.”
At an important summit in Madrid on Wednesday, NATO allies decided to increase their military presence at Russia’s gates and launch an expansion mechanism to include Sweden and Finland, which Moscow deemed “hostile” and “destabilizing.”
Turkey, a member of the alliance since 1952, has blocked the two countries from joining, accusing Stockholm and Helsinki of harboring PKK activists, which Ankara considers a “terrorist organization”.
But after long meetings on the sidelines of the summit, Turkey gave the green light to the entry of these two countries into the alliance. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was “fully cooperating” in the fight against the PKK.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced at the opening of the discussions, which until Thursday included all the leaders of the alliance, that the alliance is at a “turning point” in its history, and considers the alliance to be a “challenge to the interests” and “security” of NATO countries.
For his part, US President Joe Biden said: “We are on time” and “we will prove that NATO is needed more than ever”, announcing the strengthening of the US military presence throughout Europe, especially in the Baltic countries.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking via video link to NATO leaders, asked the alliance for additional support to enable Kyiv to counter Russian forces.
“To break the dominance of Russian artillery, we need a lot of these modern systems from this modern artillery,” Zelensky said, noting that Kyiv needs “about $5 billion a month” to provide its defense.
On Wednesday, Norway announced the shipment of three batteries, and on Tuesday the defense ministers of Germany and the Netherlands announced the delivery of six more rocket launchers.
While British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who justified the attack on Ukraine in part by fearing a new eastward expansion of NATO, “hoped for a lesser presence of the Alliance on its western front after its illegal invasion of Ukraine “, but “was completely wrong, because he received more of the oath.”
For his part, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday that the NATO summit in Madrid confirms the alliance’s “hostility” towards Russia, calling its expansion to Finland and Sweden a “largely destabilizing” move, Russian news agencies added. that “the Madrid summit strengthens the Alliance’s path of aggressive containment of Russia.
