US President Joe Biden will on Tuesday sign documents endorsing Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership, the military alliance’s biggest expansion since the 1990s, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine .
The US Senate backed the 95-1 expansion last week, a rare show of bipartisan unity in a bitterly divided Washington. Both Democratic and Republican senators strongly backed the two Nordic countries’ membership, describing them as important allies whose military already worked closely with NATO.
The vote stood in stark contrast to some rhetoric in Washington under former Republican President Donald Trump’s administration, which pursued an “America First” foreign policy and criticized NATO allies for failing to meet US spending targets. defense.
Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership in response to Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has repeatedly warned both countries against joining the alliance.
The 30 NATO allies last month signed Sweden and Finland’s accession protocol, allowing them to join the nuclear weapons alliance once all member states ratify the decision.
Ratification can take up to a year, although membership has already been approved by some countries, including Canada, Germany and Italy.
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