US President Joe Biden. Archyde.com Yonhap News
US President Joe Biden announced on the 18th (local time) that he strongly supports Finland and Sweden’s applications to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“We warmly welcome and strongly support the historic applications of Finland and Sweden,” Biden said in a statement.
“The two countries have long been faithful partners of the United States,” he said.
Finland and Sweden, which had maintained a neutral line in accordance with a policy of military non-alignmentism for 74 years and maintained cooperative relations without joining NATO, applied for NATO membership in the wake of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine.
President Biden has previously expressed his support for the two countries’ accession to NATO through phone calls with the leaders of the two countries. He is scheduled to hold talks with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish President Sauli Ninistö at the White House on the 19th. At this meeting, he is likely to reaffirm strong support for both countries’ accession to NATO.
Joining NATO as a new member requires unanimous approval from the existing 30 member states. However, Turkey, an existing member state, opposes the two countries joining NATO on the grounds that Finland and Sweden support the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish militant group that is a separatist movement in their country.
>Please activate JavaScript for write a comment in LiveRe.