Turkey’s president submits Sweden’s NATO bid to parliament for ratification

Turkey’s parliament is set to vote on Sweden’s bid to join NATO after President Erdogan submitted a protocol for Stockholm’s admission into the military alliance.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has submitted a protocol for Sweden’s admission into NATO to Turkey’s parliament for ratification, his office said on Monday.

Erdogan had delayed ratification of Sweden’s membership, accusing Stockholm of being too soft on Kurdish militants and other groups he sees as security threats. Turkey has also been angered by a series of Quran-burning protests.

All 31 NATO allies must endorse Sweden’s membership. Turkey and Hungary are the only two allies that have yet to ratify it.

A brief statement from the presidential communications directorate said Erdogan had signed the protocol on Sweden’s NATO accession, which will then be submitted to Turkey’s Grand National Assembly.

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For its part, the Nordic country has welcomed the move.

“I am glad to hear that Turkish President Erdogan has now handed over the ratification documents to the Turkish parliament,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. 

“Now it is up to the parliament to deal with the matter. We look forward to NATO membership.”

Sweden and its neighbour Finland abandoned decades of military non-alignment after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his country’s troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022. Seeking protection under NATO’s security umbrella, Finland joined the military alliance in April.

Earlier this month, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged Turkey to quickly ratify Sweden’s membership in the military organisation.

“Many allies would like to see rapid progress on this ratification,” Stoltenberg said after chairing a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels. “Sweden has done what it said it would do, and now we need ratification of Swedish membership.”