WASHINGTON — President Biden vowed on Thursday to speed Finland and Sweden to NATO membership, seeking to redraw the map of Europe to the West’s advantage less than three months after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia began his invasion of Ukraine.
In a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden with President Sauli Niinisto of Finland and Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden, Mr. Biden said he was immediately submitting to the Senate the treaty language needed to make the two countries the newest members of the alliance. Formal accession to the alliance will require the approval of the other 29 member nations as well.
While there is little doubt that the Senate and most other NATO members will overwhelmingly approve a treaty of accession, Turkey — which under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has had a sometimes close and sometimes contentious relationship with Moscow — has expressed objections that could slow the process and require negotiations to address its concerns.
“These two countries, especially Sweden, they are a complete hotbed of terrorism,” Mr. Erdogan said on Thursday, an apparent reference to what the Turkish leader contends is their tacit support for Kurdish separatists.
