Germany will support the admission of Finland and Sweden into the NATO military alliance, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, after the two Nordic states expressed interest in joining up despite decades of neutrality.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday following two days of closed-door meetings with his Finnish and Swedish counterparts in a town near Berlin, Scholz vowed to back both nations’ bid to join the Western military bloc should they submit membership applications.
“For us it is clear: If these two countries decide they should join the NATO alliance then they can count on our support,” he said, adding, “Even in the period before such NATO membership is decided, they can always rely on Germany’s support. As Europeans, we see ourselves obliged to do so anyway.”