Finland urges Turkey, Hungary to approve Swedish, Finnish NATO membership bids

Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Tuesday urged Hungary and Turkey to swiftly approve the Swedish and Finnish applications for membership of the NATO defence alliance.

Hungary and Turkey are the only two remaining NATO members to not yet have ratified the applications.

"All eyes are now on Hungary and Turkey. We are waiting for these countries to ratify our applications. I think it would be important that this would happen preferably sooner than later," Marin told a joint news conference with other Nordic leaders.

Finland and Sweden last week reiterated they would join NATO at the same time, presenting a united front to Turkey.

The Nordic neighbours asked to join the NATO alliance in May in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but ran into objections from Turkey which has accused the two of harbouring groups it deems terrorists.

(Reuters)