So far, 27 countries ratify Finland´s NATO accession protocol

So far, 27 countries out of total 30 ratified the NATO accession protocols for Finland and Sweden until Friday, local and international media reported.

Portugal became the 27^th country as the Portuguese parliament on Friday ratified the protocols by 219 votes to 11.

Earlier on Thursday, Spain and Greek parliaments ratified the NATO memberships of the two Nordic countries.

The countries ratified the membership protocols are USA, Italy, Canada, Estonia, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, United Kingdom, Albania, Poland, Latvia, Slovenia, Croatia, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, Lithuania, Montenegro, Belgium, North Macedonia, France, Czech Republic, Greece, Spain and Portugal.

Finland´s accession protocol needs to be ratified by the rest three NATO member countries Hungary, Slovakia and Turkey, although some questions from Turkey still remain in this regard.

Turkey, which already agreed to support Finland´s membership, is now raising question regarding the extradition of members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and its leaders are very often threatening to block the membership.

On July 5, the ambassadors of the 30 NATO states signed the accession protocols at the organization's headquarters in Brussels, with the foreign ministers of the two Nordic countries in attendance.