Finland urges Turkey, Hungary to swiftly approve Swedish, Finnish NATO bids

[November 01, 2022]  HELSINKI (Reuters) -Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Tuesday urged Hungary and Turkey to swiftly approve the Swedish and Finnish applications for membership of the NATO defence alliance. 

Premier of Aland Veronica Thornroos, Prime Minister of Iceland Katrin Jakobsdottir, Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Stoere, Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin and Prime Minister of Sweden Ulf Kristersson attend a news conference after the meeting of prime ministers and heads of government during The 74th Ordinary Session of the Nordic Council in Helsinki, Finland November 1, 2022. Lehtikuva/Vesa Moilanen/via REUTERS

Hungary and Turkey are the only two remaining NATO members to not yet have ratified the applications.

"All eyes are now on Hungary and Turkey. We are waiting for these countries to ratify our applications. I think it would be important that this would happen preferably sooner than later," Marin told a joint news conference with other Nordic leaders.

Finland and Sweden last week reiterated they would join NATO at the same time, presenting a united front to Turkey.

The Nordic neighbours asked to join the NATO alliance in May in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but ran into objections from Turkey which has accused the two of harbouring groups it deems terrorists.

(Reporting by Essi Lehto and Anna Ringstrom, editing by Terje Solsvik)

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