STORY: Annalena Baerbock, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen on Sunday in Berlin: “It is important to us, especially to me as German Foreign Minister, that at this difficult moment, which is a moment when you have another historic one, especially in Northern Europe one step at a time, because all five Nordic countries will then be members of a common security and defense union. That we are not experiencing a stalemate at this special moment, which is really historic for these states. Instead, we have to make it very clear, at this moment we are giving you also security. There must be no intermediate phase, no gray phase where it is unclear what the status actually is. And that’s why we as the Federal Republic, that’s why we as the Federal Government have prepared everything for a very, very fast ratification process. Like Nato may not automatically be associated with informal, we are not always associated as very, very quickly, but at the moment we will en we will be very, very fast. We have already discussed this together with all democratic parties, that if Finland and Sweden decide to become members of NATO, we will very, very quickly in Germany, and many of our other partners will then be able to ratify.”