NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. File photoBRUSSELS, June 15 NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg admitted that he was overly optimistic in assessing the timing of Sweden and Finland joining the alliance and did not take into account issues that were later raised by Turkey. «I was too optimistic in At that time (after Sweden and Finland applied for membership in the alliance — ed.), this is true, because at that stage we had no information that there might be problems, but since then we have heard about Turkey's concerns. And we acknowledged that this may take longer than expected,» he said at a press conference before the start of a two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. At the same time, Stoltenberg stressed that he hopes to achieve some progress on the membership of Sweden and Finland before the summit in Madrid at the end of June, but can not name the dates of entry. “We are all working very hard on this,” the Secretary General explained. What will happen if the Swedes and Finns join an alliance
