The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee will discuss a bill approving Sweden’s accession to NATO on Thursday.
President Tayyip Erdogan submitted the bill to parliament for ratification three weeks ago. The move was welcomed in NATO and Stockholm. Turkey initially opposed Sweden’s accession to the alliance, citing the fact that Sweden harbours groups it considers terrorist.
Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, immediately welcomed this move and said Stockholm was looking forward to becoming a NATO member. Kristersson wrote on X:
Now it remains for the parliament to deal with the question.
The parliamentary Foreign Affairs Commission must approve the bill before being voted on by the General Assembly. Erdogan will then sign it into law.
Erdogan this month said he would try to make ratification as easy as possible, saying Ankara expected Sweden to do more to fight Kurdish militants.
NATO foreign ministers will meet in Brussels on 28-29 November.
Sweden and Finland, long neutral, applied to join NATO last year to bolster their security after the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Finland was authorised to join in April, while Turkey and Hungary delayed Sweden’s application.
