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Albania also officially says Finland and Sweden's NATO membership

Albania also officially says Finland and Sweden's NATO membership

Albania has officially given the green light to the NATO membership of Finland and Sweden. The decision was announced by Foreign Minister Olta Xhaçka, after the government meeting.

"In today's meeting, we approved in principle the protocols of NATO accession in Sweden and Finland. We have formally agreed to the enlargement of the Alliance and the inclusion of these two countries. These are protocols that are then passed for ratification in the Assembly. When this procedure is approved in the 230 parliaments of NATO member countries, de jure accession to the North Atlantic Treaty will be possible for these two countries. The final step is the deposit of the instrument of membership with the US government in the capacity of the depository country of this treaty. It is an important development that strengthens security and cooperation between the US and the EU as well as NATO and the EU. "It is a development that comes as a direct consequence of Russian aggression in Ukraine," Xhaçka said.

Both countries made the official application in recent days following the threat of Russian aggression, and have received support from all member countries of the military alliance except Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the two countries of supporting terrorism in a statement to the media.

Yesterday, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson responded to the Turkish president's accusations by saying that her country "does not send money to terrorist organizations.