Defense minister: Sweden expects to become NATO member before July summit

Sweden expects to become part of NATO before the Alliance summit in Vilnius, which will be held on July 11-12, Swedish Defense Minister Paul Jonsson said on the air of the Ukrainian Studio program.

He reminded that Sweden started the process of joining NATO together with Finland, but the countries could not become members of the Alliance at the same time.

"The fact that Finland is already in NATO is good for the security of Sweden. But, of course, it is important that we can join the Alliance as soon as possible. We want to do this before the NATO summit in Vilnius, which will be held on July 11-12,” he stressed.

The official noted that Stockholm had an understanding that there were more disagreements between Sweden and Türkiye than in the case of Finland. But now Sweden has taken a number of steps, which are stipulated by the tripartite memorandum between the countries, including changing the legislation to combat terrorism.

"There is a tripartite memorandum of understanding between Sweden, Finland and Türkiye, and we intend to follow it. Religion is not part of this memorandum. We have freedom of speech and freedom of religion. They are not covered by the memorandum. In my opinion, the burning of the Koran is an incorrect act that I personally strongly condemn,” he said.





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