Delay in Finland, Sweden's membership harms NATO's credibility: PM

The delay in the ratification of Finland and Sweden's North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership bid harms the alliance's credibility, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Tuesday, reported Xinhua.

"We (Finland and Sweden) would have hoped to become members of NATO already," Marin said during a joint press conference with visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Stoltenberg was in Helsinki to attend the annual meeting of SAMAK, the co-operation committee of the Nordic Social Democratic parties.

"Finland and Sweden fulfill all the criteria as it has been mentioned, and we are yet waiting. Of course, this strains the open-door policy of NATO; it's also to do with NATO's credibility," said the Premier.

Stoltenberg reiterated that Finland and Sweden's rapid admission is now the alliance's number one priority.

He said that representatives of Turkey, Finland and Sweden are scheduled to meet at NATO headquarters in Brussels next week. However, this does not guarantee a breakthrough and the final decision rests with Turkey and Hungary, Stoltenberg said.

Turkey is demanding concrete Finnish and Swedish actions to address Turkish security concerns over extraditing hostile groups members before it unblocks their accession into NATO.

Another country Hungary did not ratify the membership yet, although Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on November 2 assured President Sauli Niinistö that his country will ratify Finland´s NATO accession protocol.

Finland and Sweden submitted the NATO membership applications in May.

Their accession procedure officially started in early July after 30 NATO members, including Turkey signed accession protocols.

So far 28 countries out of total 30 ratified the NATO accession protocols for Finland and Sweden.

The countries are USA, Italy, Canada, Estonia, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, United Kingdom, Albania, Poland, Latvia, Slovenia, Croatia, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Lithuania, Montenegro, Belgium, North Macedonia, France, Czech Republic, Greece, Spain Portugal and Slovakia ratified the membership protocols.

In late June, the Foreign Ministers of Finland, Sweden and Turkey signed a trilateral memorandum which confirms that Turkey will support the Finland´s and Sweden´s NATO membership applications.