BRUSSELS, 16 May. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, stressed this Monday that the NATO summit in Madrid will be “historic” due to the accession of Finland and Sweden, a step that has also been supported by the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell.
“The word that was repeated the most about what is going to happen at the Madrid summit is historic,” Albares assured about the informal meeting this Sunday of allied foreign ministers in Berlin, Germany, in which members of the military organization The majority expressed their approval of the entry of the two Nordic countries.
The Spanish foreign minister has stated that “almost certainly” NATO will have new members ahead of the summit in Madrid, despite the fact that ratification will take months later. “Finland and Sweden are welcome in the family of democracies that is the NATO alliance,” he stressed, before meeting his European counterparts in Brussels.
In addition, Albares recalled that Madrid will agree on the new strategic concept that sets the security priorities and “will govern the life of the organization for the next decade”, in which it is expected that there will be mentions of Russia and China as the main threats to allies.
Likewise, the summit will come at the height of the conflict in Ukraine, so it will be another opportunity to measure the unity of the allies and consolidate continued support for kyiv, in the face of a long war.
Speaking upon arrival at the meeting, Borrell has expressed his “strong support” for the passage of Sweden and Finland. “I think that the member states will support this decision and I hope that we can overcome the opposition of some NATO members,” said the head of community diplomacy.
Sweden on Sunday joined Finland, whose process is more advanced, as the ruling Social Democratic Party officially declared its intention to join the bloc. The two countries are expected to jointly submit their application to join NATO, the so-called “letter of intent,” in the coming days.
However, Turkey threatens to delay the entry of both into the Atlantic Alliance due to misgivings it maintains, alleging links between the two countries and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered by Ankara to be a terrorist organization.
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