Italy's Lower House approves Finland, Sweden's accession to NATO
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Italy's Chamber of Deputies has approved a bill to ratify Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO.
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Italy's Lower House
On Tuesday, The Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament voted for the ratification of the protocols providing accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO.
During the voting, 398 members of the chamber supported the ratification, while nine deputies voted against it and 20 abstained.
The Senate of the Republic will consider the bill which will be submitted for consideration.
The process for ratifying documents on Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO has so far been completed by 20 out of the alliance's 30 member states.
The process to ratify Sweden and Finland as NATO's newest members was formally launched on July 5, according to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
"This is a good day for Finland and Sweden and a good day for NATO," Stoltenberg told reporters in a joint press statement with the Swedish and Finnish foreign ministers.
"With 32 nations around the table, we will be even stronger and our people will be even safer as we face the biggest security crisis in decades," he added.
The NATO secretary-general was speaking ahead of a meeting at which NATO's 30 member states' ambassadors were expected to sign the accession protocols for the two Nordic countries, kicking off a months-long period for alliance countries to ratify their membership.
It is worth mentioning that on May 18, Finland and Sweden submitted their applications to join NATO, abandoning their neutrality policies, implying a shift in the security situation in Europe. Turkey, however, blocked the process due to the two countries' continuous support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has, for long, conducted terrorist activities against Turkey.
On June 28, Finland's President Sauli Niinisto confirmed that Turkey has agreed to support Finland and Sweden's joint membership of NATO, on the first day of the alliance's summit in the Spanish capital Madrid. Niinisto said the breakthrough came after the three countries signed a joint memorandum "to extend their full support against threats to each other’s security."
The two Nordic countries have agreed to lift their embargoes on weapons deliveries to Turkey, which were imposed in response to Ankara's 2019 military invation of Syria.
