MADRID, 17 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Sweden and Finland will take their respective applications for membership to NATO this Wednesday, with the aim of starting a process that is expected to accelerate and that, if completed, would make the two Nordic countries the 31st and 32nd members of the Alliance. Atlantic.

The two countries have chained several bureaucratic steps in recent days and, according to the Swedish Prime Minister, Magdalena Andersson, this Wednesday they will deliver the request jointly. "It is a sign that we are united for the future," she said at a press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.

Andersson has underlined the "long common history" of the two countries, emphasizing that the security of both is also linked. In this sense, he has praised the coordination against the "illegal war" launched by Russia on Ukraine, according to public television.

For his part, the Finnish president has acknowledged that the current context differs from the one before February 24, the date the invasion began, and has pointed out that, with Sweden and Finland in NATO, the region will not only be a example in terms of democracy and welfare, but also in security.

The Parliament of Finland has supported precisely this Tuesday the request of the Government to enter NATO, by a large majority of 188 votes in favor and eight against, shortly after the Swedish Foreign Minister, Anne Linde, signed the application for Sweden's entry into the Atlantic Alliance.

In addition, the White House has announced in a statement that US President Joe Biden will receive Andersson and Niinisto in Washington on Thursday.

The administrations of the two countries have made it clear that they are going together in this rapprochement with the bloc, which could translate into full membership even at the end of this year. Turkey, however, has expressed its misgivings about this expansion through the mouth of its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and theoretically has veto power.