By Suzan Fraser | Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey — The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee gave its consent to Sweden’s bid to join NATO on Tuesday, drawing the previously nonaligned Nordic country closer to membership in the Western military alliance.
Sweden’s accession protocol will now need to be approved in the Turkish parliament’s general assembly for the last stage of the legislative process in Turkey. No date has been set.
Turkey, a NATO member, has delayed ratification of Sweden’s membership for more than a year, accusing the country of being too lenient toward groups that Ankara regards as threats to its security, including Kurdish militants and members of a network that Ankara blames for a failed coup in 2016.
The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee had begun discussing Sweden’s membership in NATO last month. But the meeting was adjourned after legislators from Erdogan’s ruling party submitted a motion for a postponement on grounds that some issues needed more clarification and that negotiations with Sweden hadn’t “matured” enough.
On Tuesday, the committee resumed its deliberations and a large majority of legislators in the committee voted in favor of Sweden’s application to join.
Briefing the committee members before the vote, Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akcapar cited steps Sweden had taken steps to meet Turkish demands, including lifting restrictions on defense industry sales and amending anti-terrorism laws in ways that “no one could have imaged five or six years ago.”
“It is unrealistic to expect that the Swedish authorities will immediately fulfill all of our demands. This is a process, and this process requires long-term and consistent effort,” he said, adding that Turkey would continue to monitor Sweden’s progress.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström welcomed the committee’s decision on a message posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“The…
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