NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced his intention to visit Turkey in the near future to discuss Sweden's and Finland's applications to join the alliance.

Hungary and Turkey are the only NATO countries that have yet to ratify the two countries' applications.

"I welcome that Finland, Sweden and Turkey are working together to implement the joint memorandum they agreed on the margins of the Madrid Summit, to step up efforts to fight international terrorism. Sweden has made it clear that there are only… there are no restrictions on arms exports to Turkey. And they have established what we call a permanent mechanism, a way to work even more closely together on the exchange of information, on intelligence to support efforts on fighting international terrorism. So I'm confident that all Allies will ratify the Accession Protocol. I also welcome the fact that Finland and Sweden are in close contact with Turkey. The Swedish Prime Minister was recently here. We of course discussed the accession process and he will go to Turkey to meet with President Erdogan. 

I will go to Ankara… Or to Turkey, to Istanbul, to meet with President Erdogan in the near future myself. So we are in close contact with Finland and Sweden and also of course in close contact at all levels with our close Ally, Turkey." Stoltenberg said.