Two-thirds majority of U.S. Senate backs Finland and Sweden's joining NATO

Authored by reuters.com and submitted by Picture-unrelated
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A view of the flags of Finland, NATO and Sweden during a ceremony to mark Sweden's and Finland's application for membership in Brussels, Belgium, May 18, 2022. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/Pool

WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - More than two-thirds of the U.S. Senate approved on Wednesday Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO, the most significant expansion of the 30-member alliance since the 1990s as it faces the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

As voting continued, the tally was 74 to 1, easily surpassing the two-thirds majority of 67 votes required to support ratification of the two countries' accession documents.

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Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Rose Horowitch; Editing by Leslie Adler

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

ajAX0910 on August 3rd, 2022 at 22:58 UTC »

Yet to vote: Czech Republic Greece Hungary Portugal Slovakia Spain Turkey

fartsniffer87 on August 3rd, 2022 at 22:26 UTC »

For those confused by the numbers, the vote had not finished when Reuters published this article, but there were enough Yea votes for it to be approved.

The final tally was 95-1-1 with Josh Hawley being the sole No and Rand Paul abstaining.

murphymc on August 3rd, 2022 at 22:22 UTC »

95:1, even better than I would have expected.

The only shithead was Hawley, who voted no as promised, for the dumbest possible reason. I hope he has diarrhea tonight.