The head of NATO works in Sweden and Finland

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remains tough on Sweden in the NATO operation. Last week, he indicated that he could only consider agreeing to Finland for now – if NATO suggested it.

However, General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg still wanted to enter the Swedish-Finnish joint.

I am glad that Sweden and Finland have stood together in this process along the way. I believe that the accession of both countries to membership in NATO is a strength for NATO, and that standing together is a strength for each other. So I am working for us to find a solution where both become members as soon as possible, says Stoltenberg at a Nordic press conference ahead of this week’s meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.

in most things

This summer, Sweden and Finland received the status of invitees – invited invitees or potential members – into NATO. Thus, almost all doors are open to various NATO meetings, even if you do not yet have any voting rights.

This week’s meeting will now be the next step towards full entry. It is the first ministerial meeting since invitee status was granted and means that Peter Hultqvist (S) and fellow Finn Antti Kaikkonen have been moved one step further in the selection arrangement.

There is still a lot of stuff left. Sweden and Finland should not participate when – or if – there are discussions about their own or others’ negotiations about membership. And not when other NATO nations discuss nuclear weapons planning in a special format, the NPG, on Thursday morning.