The Turkish Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee on December 26 approved Sweden's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
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| A session of the Turkish Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee ratifying a decision to allow Sweden to join NATO in Ankara, December 26. (Source: BSS/AFP) |
With the decision, Sweden has moved closer to the NATO membership that the Nordic country has been seeking since the outbreak of military conflict in Ukraine.
Sweden's bid to join NATO will next be discussed in Türkiye's parliament, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling coalition holds a majority.
Stockholm still has to wait for this meeting to pass before it can “set foot” in NATO. Ankara has not yet set a date for the meeting.
Sweden, along with Finland, is applying to join NATO in 2022 due to security concerns over Russia's military campaign in Ukraine.
At that time, Turkey approved Finland's NATO membership but opposed Sweden's application, accusing Stockholm of protecting groups Ankara considers terrorists, such as some Kurdish organizations or groups close to Fethullah Gulen, a cleric suspected by the Turkish government of masterminding a failed coup in 2016.
If Sweden's NATO membership application is approved by the Turkish parliament, President Erdogan will sign the law into law, ending a 19-month process that has frustrated some of Ankara's allies and strained relations with the West.
Apart from Türkiye, Hungary has yet to accept Sweden’s NATO membership. However, Ankara is still seen as the biggest obstacle for Stockholm to join NATO and help strengthen the alliance’s capabilities in the Baltic Sea region.
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