Ex-NATO Secretary General: Sweden and Finland should join the alliance right now.

Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen believes that Sweden and Finland should join the alliance right now, while Russia is “busy” with a military special operation in Ukraine.

 “As for Finland and Sweden, it seems to me that these countries have a window of opportunity to join NATO right now, when Putin is busy somewhere else” – Rasmussen said in an interview with CNBC.

At the same time, the former head of the alliance added that even if the application of Sweden and Finland is considered urgent, the procedure for joining NATO will take “several months”, since it must go through the parliaments of 30 member countries of the organization before being ratified by the alliance.

In January, Rasmussen argued that Finland and Sweden would be able to join NATO the day after the application was submitted.