U.S. President Joe Biden is set to sign documents endorsing the NATO memberships of Finland and Sweden, Reuters reported on Tuesday, marking the largest expansion of the military alliance in decades in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The expansion was backed by the U.S. Senate last week, it said, in a rare display of bipartisan unity in Washington, with both Democratic and Republican Senators strongly approving membership for the two Nordic countries.
The senators described the countries, whose NATO membership has been opposed by Ankara, as important allies whose modern militaries already worked closely with the alliance, according to Reuters.
Turkey in May announced its opposition to Finland and Sweden’s NATO memberships, accusing them of being “guesthouses for terrorist organisations.”
Ankara in June lifted its objection, but last month said that it can still “freeze” the countries’ membership in NATO unless the they take steps that meet Ankara’s security demands, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The Nordic countries’ accession must be approved by the parliaments of all 30 NATO members and Turkey’s parliament could refuse to ratify the deal.
The countries EU membership ratification could take up to a year, Reuters said, noting that it has already been approved by a few countries including Canada, Germany and Italy.
In June, Turkey warned that it would block the countries’ EU membership process if they fail to extradite suspects with links to outlawed Kurdish groups or the network of an exiled cleric accused of orchestrating a failed coup in 2016.
Ahval