Press conference by German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during the alliance meeting in BerlinBERLIN, May 15.Sweden and Finland, as allies of Germany in the European Union, are in fact already part of NATO, without being formally members of the alliance, if they apply for membership in the organization, Germany will promptly ratify the relevant documents, said German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock. “Their accession will strengthen our alliance. They are already are members of NATO without formal membership. Yesterday, together with (Foreign Ministers of Finland and Sweden) Pekka Havisto and Ann Linde, we said that this is a very emotional moment for Sweden and Finland – for the first time all the Scandinavian countries under one security umbrella, “Burbock said at a press conference following an informal meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers in Berlin.NATO will find a consensus on the entry of Finland and Sweden, said BlinkenShe noted that membership in NATO is the realization of the right to join defensive alliances and is in line with the values of the European Union and the OSCE. “If our friends in Helsinki and Stockholm decide in favor of NATO membership, which is very likely, then we will make the period between application and ratification as short as possible so that there is no gray area. <…> The Federal Republic (of Germany) will conduct an accelerated process, which means that the proposal of the government is to use all the possibilities, adopt a government decree as soon as possible, hold an extraordinary meeting of the Bundestag as soon as possible to ensure that we ratify this in German law as soon as possible, ” she added. Burbock added that “if Sweden and Finland are ready, then we are ready.” intro, Burbock said
