Canada has already ratified the membership of Sweden and Finland in NATO.

Canada’s Prime Minister assured on Tuesday that Canada was the first country to ratify Sweden and Finland’s request for NATO membership, and urged other NATO countries to do the same as soon as possible.

“Today, Canada became the first country to ratify the accession protocols for Finland and Sweden to NATO. This brings both countries closer to full membership,” Canadian government official Justin Trudeau said in a statement.

The announcement came after Denmark officially announced that it had also ratified the request from two Scandinavian countries.

The Prime Minister of Canada added that the integration of Finland and Sweden would make NATO “stronger” and urged other countries of the Alliance to ratify protocols limiting “enemy interference” as soon as possible.

Trudeau recalled that Canada is one of the founding countries of the military alliance and that he advocates NATO’s open door policy to include “any European country capable of advancing the commitments and obligations of membership”, emphasizing the defense of democracy and contribution to the collective defense of the alliance countries.

Ambassadors from 30 NATO countries today signed accession protocols at the organization’s headquarters in Brussels, allowing Finland and Sweden to participate in the meetings until all countries ratify access.

The procedures for ratifying accession protocols vary from one country to another: while in the United States two-thirds approval of the Senate (upper house of Congress) is required, in the United Kingdom a formal vote in Parliament is not required.

Following this process, the relevant approval protocols must be sent to the US Department of State, the depositary named in the alliance agreement.

Norway, Iceland and the Baltic states have announced their intention to ratify the expansion in the coming days, and the German parliament is expected to vote on Friday, before the summer break.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO on May 18, ending their traditional policy of non-alignment due to the war in Ukraine, despite having maintained close cooperation with the Western military organization for decades.

Last week and during the Madrid summit, NATO leaders agreed to start the accession process after the Nordic countries reached an agreement in principle with Turkey, which vetoed access.