French foreign minister hopes Sweden, Finland join NATO soon

By LIUDAS DAPKUS
Associated Press

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — France’s top diplomat says that she hopes that the NATO applications of Sweden and Finland will be “ratified quickly.” The Turkish parliament is expected to vote soon on whether Finland should join the 30-member alliance. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna referred to an upcoming NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital in July when she said Thursday that “we hope this summit will be a success and that there will be 32 countries at the Vilnius summit.” Colonna told a news conference in Vilnius that “the applications of Sweden and Finland should be ratified quickly.”