Turkey submits bill to ratify Sweden’s Nato membership
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has submitted a bill for Sweden’s Nato membership request to Turkey’s parliament for ratification, the Turkish presidency has said.
Turkey and Hungary are the only Nato members yet to ratify Sweden’s membership after Stockholm dropped its longstanding policy of non-alignment last year to apply after Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Erdoğan agreed at a Nato summit in Vilnius in July to put the ratification of Sweden’s membership before his parliament as pressure grew on Ankara from partners. But until Monday there had been little movement.
“Sweden’s Nato membership protocol was signed on October 23, 2023 by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and sent to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey,” the presidency posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.
Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, welcomed the move. “Now it remains for the parliament to deal with the question,” Kristersson said on social media platform X. “We look forward to being a Nato member.”
Glädjande besked att Turkiets president Erdoğan nu har lämnat över ratificeringsdokumenten till det turkiska parlamentet. Nu återstår för parlamentet att behandla frågan. Vi ser fram emot att bli medlem i Nato.
— SwedishPM (@SwedishPM) October 23, 2023
There is no set timeframe for ratification, however. The bill will be put on the agenda of parliament’s foreign affairs commission, which will have to pass it before it can be sent to the general assembly for ratification.
Finland, Sweden’s Nordic neighbour, which applied to join Nato at the same time, was granted membership in April.
Erdoğan has put pressure on Stockholm to take action over Qu’ran desecrations in the country that have degraded bilateral relations.
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Ankara also says Sweden is harbouring outlawed Kurdish members of the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) militia and has demanded their extradition. The PKK is deemed a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and the US.
Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report.