BRUSSELS (Dispatches) -- The 30 NATO allies signed off on the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland on Tuesday, sending the membership bids of the two nations to the alliance capitals for legislative approvals.
“This is truly a historic moment for Finland, for Sweden and for NATO,” said alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
The protocol means Helsinki and Stockholm can participate in NATO meetings and have greater access to intelligence but will not be protected by the NATO defense clause - that an attack on one ally is an attack against all - until ratification. That is likely to take up to a year.
The 30 ambassadors and permanent representatives formally approved the decisions of last week’s NATO summit when the alliance made the decision to invite Russia’s neighbor Finland and Scandinavian partner Sweden to join the military club.
Despite the agreement in the alliance, parliamentary approval in member state Turkey could still pose problems for their final inclusion as members.
Last week, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Ankara could still block the process if the two countries fail to fully meet Turkey’s demand to extradite terror suspects with links to outlawed Kurdish groups or the network of an exiled cleric accused of a failed 2016 coup in Turkey.
He said Turkey’s parliament could refuse to ratify the deal. It is a potent threat since NATO accession must be formally approved by all 30 member states, which gives each a blocking right.
Every alliance nation has different legislative challenges and procedures to deal with, and it could take several more months for the two to become official members.
It was at an allied summit in Madrid in 1997 that Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic were invited to join, in the first of several waves of NATO’s eastern expansion - seen as an achievement for the West but which has angered Russia.
Moscow has repeatedly warned both countries against joining NATO. On March 12, the Russian foreign ministry said “there will be serious military and political consequences”.
Stoltenberg urged allies to swiftly ratify and assured the two Nordic countries of NATO’s support in the meantime.