The Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday again called on Turkey to simultaneously ratify the accession of Finland and Sweden to the Alliance.

“I have been urging them for many months to ratify the accession of both countries at the same time”, Stoltenberg said during a press conference he gave shortly after the work of the NATO Defense Ministers Summit ended. He noted, however, that it is Turkey’s decision whether to ratify both countries at the same time or not. “This is a Turkish decision,” he stressed, “not a NATO decision.”

G. Stoltenberg said that the order of accession is not so important as that Sweden and Finland become members of NATO as soon as possible. He also expressed confidence that both countries will become members of NATO. He reminded that 28 NATO members have already ratified the accession protocol of the two Scandinavian countries, but not Hungary and Turkey.

Finally, G.G. of NATO said he will visit Turkey tomorrow, where he will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara and visit areas affected by the devastating earthquakes of February 6.