Next, Turkey will deliver its ratification papers for Finland’s membership to Washington. After that, the Secretary General of NATO presents Finland with an invitation to become a NATO member.
15:30•Updated 15:30
Turkey finally confirmed Finland’s NATO membership on Saturday, when the information was published in its official newspaper. Also the foreign minister Pekka Haavisto (green) says that he received the information from the president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of the signature.
– Turkey will apparently deliver the document as quickly as possible to Washington, where it will be stored in the warehouses of the US State Department, Haavisto said on Saturday in an interview with at Helsinki’s Narinkkator.
Next, the Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg receives information from the US that the paper has arrived, and this invites Finland to join the North Atlantic Treaty.
– It can happen any day. If you had to guess a certain day, it might be, for example, Monday or Tuesday, says Haavisto.
After that, the Finnish representative travels to Washington to deposit the application papers with the US State Department. It is not yet known who will get the paper.
– This is exactly what we are discussing, schedules and more. As long as the invitation comes from NATO first, we’ll see. In any case, it is signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
When all the documents have arrived in Washington, Finland will officially become a full member of NATO.
– If this recording in Turkey proceeds as planned, there could be these decisive steps in the next week or the following week, says Haavisto.