PARIS (Reuters) – Turkey and Hungary must ratify Sweden’s NATO membership before the alliance meets at a summit in July, France’s foreign minister said on Friday, adding that any further delays were not understandable and risked the 31-members’ security.
“It is in everyone’s interest, including Turkey, and we are counting on it now that the elections are over to quickly ratify Sweden’s membership,” Catherine Colonna told reporters at a news conference with her Swedish counterpart Tobias Billstrom.
“We want it (Sweden) to be in Vilnius as a full member.”
Billstrom said Stockholm had met the terms of an agreement with Ankara, pointing to new anti-terrorism legislation, and that it was now in the “hands of Turkey to decide.”
(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
