NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that Finland and Sweden officially applied to join the world’s biggest military alliance on May 18.
“I warmly welcome the requests by Finland and Sweden to join NATO. You are our closest partners,” Stoltenberg told reporters after receiving their application letters from the ambassadors of the two Nordic countries.
“This is a historic moment, which we must seize,” Stoltenberg said at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
The applications will now be considered by the 30 member countries. The process is expected to take about two weeks. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed reservations about Finland and Sweden joining.
The two Nordic nations ended decades of military neutrality to join the security alliance mainly due to security concerns following Russia’s war in Ukraine.