The head of the Pentagon calls on Turkey and Hungary to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO as soon as possible

19 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Secretary of Defense of the United States, Lloyd Austin, has urged the authorities of Turkey and Hungary to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO as soon as possible during a visit to the country in which he met his Swedish counterpart, Pal Jonson.

As countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and Finland, among others, push to achieve the entry of the country into the Atlantic Alliance ahead of the summit scheduled for mid-July in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, Austin has stressed that Sweden He is “a great ally” and has urged their accession “soon”.

In this sense, he has stressed that it is Turkey and Hungary who “are holding back their entry into NATO” and has pointed out that Stockholm “gives great value to the Alliance” given that it has “a modern Army”. “Our forces have accomplished a lot together and have increased their interoperability,” she said.

Jonson, for his part, has underlined the good state of relations between the parties, especially with regard to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and has stressed that “this represents a sample of military cooperation between the United States and Sweden”, according to information from the newspaper ‘Gagens Nyheter’.

The last time a US Secretary of Defense visited Sweden was in June 2000, when the head of the Pentagon was William Cohen.