French President Emmanuel Macron . File photoPARIS, Aug 13French President Emmanuel Macron signed the protocols for Finland and Sweden to join NATO, France Presse reports, citing the Elysee Palace.
"This is the sovereign choice of Finland and Sweden , two European partners, will strengthen their security in the face of the current threat in their neighborhood and will make a significant contribution, given the capabilities of these two partners, to the collective position and our European security", the agency quotes a statement from the authorities.
The French National Assembly (lower house of parliament) on August 2 voted in favor of ratifying the agreement on the admission of Finland and Sweden to NATO: 209 deputies voted in favor, 46 against. The parliamentary vote came after the French Senate ratified the document in July. Earlier, 23 countries, including the United States, out of 30 NATO members approved the applications of Stockholm and Helsinki. jpg» />NATO will soon begin to justify the use of nuclear weapons, said the Foreign MinistryFinland and Sweden, against the backdrop of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, in May handed over to the NATO Secretary General applications to join the alliance. At first, Turkey blocked the start of the process of considering these applications, but then, on June 29, Ankara, Stockholm and Helsinki signed a security memorandum. Turkey, in turn, withdrew its objections to the entry of the two Scandinavian countries into NATO. Moscow has repeatedly pointed out that NATO is aimed at confrontation. As the press secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov stated, further expansion of the military bloc will not bring greater security to Europe. At the same time, he emphasized that he did not consider the entry of two new countries into the alliance an existential threat to Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin is sure that abandoning Finland's traditional policy of military neutrality would be erroneous, since there are no threats to its security.
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