Blinken: Finland And Sweden Are Ready To Be NATO Allies

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking at the US State Department alongside Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto and Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Tobias Billström, has told reporters that the Nordic countries are progressing well.

• Livestream: https://www.state.gov/
• Turkey's ratification of the accession protocols remains the primary outstanding obstacle to the Nordic nations being accepted as full members of the military alliance.
• Earlier today, Akif Kilic of the Turkish Foreign Affairs Committee told Reuters that Turkey is in "no rush" to ratify the Nordic nations' NATO bids.
• Kilic "It's up to Finland and Sweden... when they address our expectations, we will fulfil our duty of ratification. They have our word."
• Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Finland must lift an embargo on arms sales to Turkey. "There have been some discussions with Finnish industry about exports from Finland to Turkey. There are some preliminary talks. I'd say it would be possible in the near future to have some exports."