Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to forward to parliament Sweden's bid to join the NATO military alliance, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday, on the eve of a NATO summit in Vilnius.
"I'm glad to announce ... that President Erdogan has agreed to forward the accession protocol for Sweden to the grand national assembly as soon as possible, and work closely with the assembly to ensure ratification," Stoltenberg told a news conference.
Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO last year, casting aside policies of military non-alignment that had lasted through the decades of the Cold War as Russia's invasion of Ukraine reframed security considerations. Stockholm has been working hard at its bid ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, together with the United States and its allies, urging Turkey to abandon its opposition.
Meanwhile, Sweden has said it has fulfilled all the demands agreed upon in negotiations with Turkey last year, including introducing a new bill that makes being a member of a terrorist organization illegal, and stressed freedom of speech is protected in its constitution.
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