Washington [US]March 2 (ANI / Sputnik): Sweden and Finland should join NATO tomorrow if they are ready and willing, said US Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday.
“Sweden and Finland, two countries that have never belonged to NATO, are considering joining, and I think we should announce them tomorrow if they are ready to join,” McConnell said during a new conference.
On Thursday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg invited Sweden and Finland to participate in a virtual NATO summit on the situation in and around Ukraine on Friday. On the same day, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said that Finland would be ready to join NATO “if the issue of national security becomes urgent.” President Vladimir Putin said the goal was to demilitarize and de-Nazify the country in defense of the self-proclaimed republics of the Donbas region.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday that Moscow must answer if Sweden and Finland become members of NATO. (ANI / Sputnik)