President Erdogan Signs Sweden's NATO Accession, PM Kristersson: We Welcome Turkey's Ratification

Turkish President Erdogan, Secretary General of NATO Stoltenberg and Swedish PM Kristersson. (Source: NATO)

JAKARTA - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan finally approved Sweden's membership application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Thursday, with Stockholm next just waiting for approval from Hungary.

President Erdogan signed the Turkish Parliament's earlier ratification of the accession, according to the official presidential gazette, some 20 months after Stockholm first asked to join NATO following Russia's massive invasion of Ukraine.

"We welcome Turkey's ratification of Sweden's application to become a member of NATO. We have now reached an important milestone on the road to full membership in NATO," said Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on the X social media network, reported by Reuters on January 26.

With this ratification, Sweden is just waiting for ratification from Hungary, after this week PM Viktor Orban confirmed to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that his government supported Sweden's accession.

"All that remains is Hungary's ratification before Sweden can become a member of NATO," Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom added on the same platform.

The Turkish Parliament's ratification on Tuesday cleared the biggest remaining hurdle to expanding the Western military alliance.

The Presidential Communications Directorate said President Erdogan had "decided to publish a law" on Sweden's accession to NATO, which was passed by parliament and signed a presidential decree approving the Stockholm accession protocol.

Ankara's final accession document, the instrument of ratification, will now be sent to Washington D.C. as per NATO rules.

It is known that the delay in approving the accession of Sweden, which is applying for membership in 2022 along with Finland, has frustrated some of Ankara's allies, but has still allowed Ankara to obtain certain concessions.

Ankara now expects the United States to start working to get support from the US Congress for its $20 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.

President Erdogan's approval of Sweden's offer came a day after US President Joe Biden sent a letter to leaders of key Capitol Hill committees, informing them of his intention to begin a formal notification process for the F-16 sale once Ankara completes Sweden's accession process to NATO.

Earlier, the US Ambassador to Turkey told Reuters that the State Department would immediately send a notification to Congress once the instrument of ratification was received in Washington.