NATO chief to accelerate Finland, Sweden membership into alliance

• 

On Sunday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance wants to accelerate the joining of Finland and Sweden into NATO "as much as possible."

"We are also aware that Finland and Sweden are of course concerned about the interim period from when they have applied to all the national parliaments have to ratify the accession protocol. We would like to speed up this process as much as possible," Stoltenberg told a press conference.

On Sunday, Finland made the official decision to join NATO. 

Finland to officially join NATO

On Sunday, Finland's president and the Ministerial Committee on Foreign and Security Policy completed a report on the country's NATO membership and decided that the country will join the alliance, according to a statement from the Finnish government.

According to the statement, “In the meeting, the President and the Ministerial Committee agreed that Finland would apply for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) after the Parliament has been heard."

Following the publishing of the statement, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanne Marin held a joint news conference in which they stated that the whole force of democracy was at work.

“The Parliament of Finland will receive the application for NATO membership” Niinisto stated.

The prime minister labeled the move "historic," and stressed that Finland, as a NATO member state, will be accountable for the alliance's overall security.

The decision will be debated in parliament on Monday, with a vote scheduled for Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto stated that Finland will most likely submit an application for membership to NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday.