(Brussels) Finland will become the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Monday.
“Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will welcome Finland as the 31st member,” Stoltenberg said, adding that the Finnish flag would be raised on Tuesday mid-afternoon at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels.
“It is truly a historic day,” he added, noting that it was the “fastest” accession process in recent Alliance history.
Asked about the fate of Sweden, for which Turkey has not yet given the green light, the NATO chief was optimistic.
“I am absolutely confident that Sweden will also become a member. It is, for NATO, for me, a priority to make sure this happens as quickly as possible,” he said at a press briefing.
Sweden, like Finland, is already very integrated within NATO with the status of guest country.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the two countries decided to turn the page on their policy of military non-alignment in force since the 1990s, itself inherited from decades of forced or chosen neutrality, by asking to join to NATO in May 2022.