“Canada today became the first country to ratify Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership protocols. This brings both countries closer to full membership,” the government official said. Canadian Justin Trudeau in a press release.

The announcement came after Denmark officially announced that it had also ratified the request from the two Nordic countries.

The Canadian Prime Minister added that the integration of Finland and Sweden would make NATO “stronger” and called on the other countries of the Alliance to quickly ratify the protocols to limit “enemy interference”.

Trudeau recalled that Canada is one of the founding countries of the military alliance and that it defends NATO’s open door policy for the incorporation of “any European country able to advance the commitments and the obligations of membership”, stressing the protection of democracy and contribution to the collective defense of the countries of the alliance.

Ambassadors from the 30 NATO countries today signed the accession protocols at the organization’s headquarters in Brussels, which will allow Finland and Sweden to participate in the meetings as all countries ratify the access.

Procedures for ratifying accession protocols vary from country to country: while the United States requires the approval of two-thirds of the Senate (the upper house of Congress), in the United Kingdom a formal vote of parliament is not required.

After this process, the respective approval reports must be sent to the US State Department, the depository designated by the alliance treaty.

Norway, Iceland and the Baltic states have announced their intention to ratify enlargement in the coming days, and the German parliament is expected to vote on Friday, before the start of the summer break.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO on May 18, ending their traditional policy of non-alignment due to the war in Ukraine, although they maintained close cooperation with the Western military organization during decades.

Last week and at the Madrid summit, NATO leaders agreed to launch the membership process after the Nordic countries reached an agreement in principle with Turkey, which had vetoed access.

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