Brussels, May 18 (UNI) Sweden and Finland on Wednesday formally submitted their applications to join NATO. NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg personally accepted the applications from Sweden's ambassador to NATO, Axel Wernhoff, and his Finnish colleague Klaus Korhonen at the headquarters of the 30-member, US-led defensive military alliance in Haren, in the north-east of Brussels. He said, "I warmly welcome the requests by Finland and Sweden to join Nato. You are our closest partners." He also called the occasion as "a historic step" and "a good day at a critical time for our safety". According to The Guardian, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson are due to travel to Washington on Thursday to meet US President Joe Biden for talks on their countries' application and European security more broadly. Stoltenberg said, "The security interests of all allies have to be taken into account and we are determined to work through all issues and reach rapid conclusions. "All allies agree on the importance of NATO enlargement. We all agree that we must stand together and we all agree that this is an historic moment which we must seize." The NATO ambassadors are likely to discuss the applications on Wednesday. NATO accession -- including ratification by all member states -- usually takes between eight and 12 months, but the alliance has said it wants to move quickly given the threat from Russia hanging over the Nordic countries' heads, The Guardian reported. Meanwhile, Turkey has raised objections on Sweden and Finland's application to join NATO. Ankara has said that its objections were on based on Sweden and Finland's support for Kurdish militant groups and their decisions in 2019 to impose arms export embargos on Ankara over the military operations in Syria. UNI RNJ