SWEDEN SOON?
Finland's arrival nevertheless remains a bittersweet moment for the alliance as the hope had been for Sweden to come on board at the same time.
Helsinki's first act as a new member was to back Stockholm's bid.
Budapest and Ankara remain the holdouts after belatedly agreeing to wave through Helsinki's bid.
Sweden has upset Hungary's leader Viktor Orban - one of Putin's closest allies in Europe - by expressing alarm over the rule of law in Hungary.
It has also angered Türkiye by refusing to extradite dozens of suspects that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan links to a failed 2016 coup attempt and the decades-long Kurdish independence struggle.
The United States and other NATO members led the calls for Sweden to join as soon as Finland's flag was fluttering in the cold Brussels breeze.
"Sweden is also a strong and capable partner that is ready to join NATO," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
"We encourage Túrkiye and Hungary to ratify the accession protocols for Sweden without delay."
Ukraine is also pushing for eventual NATO membership, but Western diplomats say that still remains a distant prospect.
"There is no better strategic solution to ensuring strategic security in the Euro-Atlantic region than the membership of Ukraine in the alliance," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
Stoltenberg said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was invited to NATO's Vilnius summit in July.
The focus for the alliance remains on bolstering Kyiv's capacities to win the war, while moving it towards NATO membership only over the longer term.
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2023-04-04 19:07:10Z
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