The leaders of seven NATO countries have promised to support Sweden’s and Finland’s accession to the alliance and to provide more heavy weapons to Ukraine, the Associated Press reported.
They expressed their support after an informal meeting in the official residence of the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in The Hague, arranged by Rutte and his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen. The other leaders of the meeting were the President of Romania and the Prime Ministers of Belgium, Poland, Portugal and Latvia.
“My message regarding membership in Sweden and Finland is that I warmly welcome it,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who also attended the meeting. “This is a historic decision. It will strengthen them, it will strengthen us,” he added. But Stoltenberg also said the alliance must take seriously the fears of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has said he will not allow the two countries to join NATO until they change policies to support Kurdish fighters, whom Ankara considers terrorists . “There is no NATO ally who has suffered more from terrorist attacks from Turkey,” Stoltenberg said.
At the same time, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has criticized the support for Ukraine so far and has repeatedly demanded that more and heavier weapons be sent to it. “We have not done enough to defend Ukraine, to support the Ukrainian people, to defend their freedom and sovereignty. And that is why I urge you, please, to do much more for the supply of weapons and artillery to Ukraine,” said Morawiecki. “Where will the confidence be for us if Ukraine falls Can we imagine that Ukraine will fall and we will go back to everything the old way I hope we can not,” he added.
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Source: sn.dk