The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, today invited her Turkey and Hungary to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership ahead of the NATO summit on July 11 and 12 in Vilnius.

During the summit in Lithuania, Allies should “send the message of unity that is required today” against Russia and in support of Ukraine, the French president said as he welcomed NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to Paris.

“Finland’s accession to NATO, a few weeks ago, was a powerful move. We must now follow this logic to the end and allow Sweden to participate in the Vilnius summit fully as an ally,” he said.

“Twenty-nine states completed their national (ratification) procedures many months ago, I call on the two that have not yet done so to seriously consider their responsibility,” continued Macron. “Now is the time more than ever to make the decisions that allow the unity, the security of the continent,” he said.

“The time has come to accept Sweden as a full member of NATO,” Jens Stoltenberg said for his part, recalling that he will host a July 6 meeting in Brussels with high-ranking officials from Turkey, Sweden and Finland in the hope to end the impasse.

THE Sweden it is “invited” to the Alliance from June 2022 but its candidacy, which must be ratified by the 31 member states, is blocked by Turkey and Hungary.

The Hungarian parliament has put on its agenda the ratification of Sweden’s accession to NATO during an extraordinary summer period which will end on July 7.

Western countries, notably the United States, have urged Ankara to give its approval for Stockholm’s membership, stressing that Sweden has respected the terms of an agreement reached with Ankara.

The disagreements are over Sweden’s stance towards Kurdish opposition movements such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara blacklists as “terrorist” organisations.