US likely to process Finland's NATO bid before Aug: McConnell

US Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday hoped that the US Congress will vote on Finland's NATO membership application within quickest possible time once the official application has been submitted.

Speaking at a joint press conference after a meeting with President Sauli Niinistö at the Presidential Place in Helsinki he hoped that the application will be processed before the legislators vacation in August.

Niinistö met with McConnell and Republican Senators John Barrasso, Susan Collins and John Cornyn and discussed Finland’s security solutions, US support for Finland’s NATO membership and Russia’s warfare in Ukraine.

“We had a very good discussion. I want to refer to our last meeting, that was in March in Washington. And I want to thank once again for the encouragement you gave a couple of months ago. And now you see the results”, Niinistö said at the joint press conference.

In addition to NATO, the President and the Senators discussed Ukraine.

“We had a very interesting discussion, not only dealing Finnish membership in NATO, but also about Ukraine,” he added.

McConnell stated that the goal of the United States is to process Finland’s membership application as quickly as possible once Finland’s official application has been submitted.

According to the Senator, Finland would strengthen the defence alliance. In addition, the Senator thanked Finland for everything that Finland has done for Ukraine.

The President and the Ministerial Committee on Foreign and Security Policy decided earlier, on Sunday that after consulting Parliament, Finland will apply for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

The delegation of United States Senators also met with Prime Minister Sanna Marin. The meeting took place in Parliament, where the Senators listened to the debate and met with Speaker of Parliament Matti Vanhanen where Minister of Defence Antti Kaikkonen was also present, said a government press release.