Members of the Portuguese Parliament vote on the draft 2022 state budget in Lisbon, Portugal, October 27, 2021. Portal/Pedro Nunes/File Photo
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LISBON, Sept 16 (Portal) – Portugal’s parliament on Friday ratified Finland and Sweden’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, bringing the alliance’s most significant expansion since the 1990s a step closer as NATO prepared for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reacted.
The 230-seat Portuguese parliament ratified the two Nordic countries’ accession to NATO by a vote of 219 to 11, with only the Communists and Left Bloc voting against.
“By approving the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, Parliament reaffirms its commitment to peace in Europe, the collective security of the Euro-Atlantic area, but also to human rights and democracy,” said Marcos Perestrello, an MP from the ruling Socialist Party, during the debate.
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Finland, which shares a land border with Russia, and Sweden, which lies directly west of Finland, applied for membership in the 30-nation alliance, abandoning decades of foreign policy neutrality in response to Ukraine’s Feb. 24 invasion.
The NATO allies signed their accession protocol in July. It must be ratified by the parliaments of all of its members before Finland and Sweden can be protected by NATO’s defense clause, which treats an attack on one member as an attack on all.
After Friday’s vote in Portugal and a similar ratification by neighboring Spain on Thursday, only Hungary, Slovakia and Turkey remain on the list.
Russia, which says its forces are involved in a “special military operation” in Ukraine, sees Sweden and Finland joining NATO as a destabilizing move.
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Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Edited by Andrei Khalip and Paul Simao
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