The Parliament of Montenegro has ratified the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO.
The foreign minister of the country announced the vote in a tweet Ranko Krivokapić on Friday.
However, the matter still requires final approval from the President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović.
Montenegro is the 20th of NATO’s 30 member states to ratify the Nordic countries’ accession to the military alliance.
Ten member countries have not yet accepted Finland’s accession to the alliance, so questions remain.
Although the United States seems ready to vote overwhelmingly in favor of Finland and Sweden joining NATO, Rand Paul, Kentucky’s Republican senator postpones the vote. His main gripe is NATO’s Article 5, which guarantees the collective security of all members. He argues that any action by the United States requires the approval of Congress, regardless of what the treaty stipulates.
Finland’s NATO bid has also raised concerns, as politicians seem to be using ratification as a negotiating game. In addition to Turkey being mercurial when Finland and Sweden joined the alliance, problems arose this week with the alliance’s other Mediterranean member.
Governor of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, Massimiliano Fedriga, asked his country’s parliament to suspend the ratification of Finland’s NATO membership on Wednesday. His reasoning stemmed from recently announced plans by Finnish marine and energy equipment company Wärtsilä to end production in Trieste, Italy. Despite the governor’s rhetoric, Finland’s economy minister Mika Lintilä was shocked and said he wasn’t "consider it a serious situation".
Source: The Nordic Page