A bill approving Sweden's Nato membership was put forward to the Turkish Parliament for ratification by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, a move welcomed by Stockholm that clears the way for it to join the western defence alliance.
At a summit in July, Mr Erdogan pleased his Nato allies by promising to send the legislation to parliament when it reopened on October 1, having previously raised objections over Sweden's alleged harbouring of terrorists.
However, following the opening of parliament, Turkish officials have repeatedly said Stockholm needs to take more concrete steps to clamp down on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militia before Ankara can ratify its membership bid. The PKK is deemed a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and the US.
On Monday, the bill on approving Sweden finally moved forward.
"The protocol on Sweden's Nato accession was signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on October 23 and referred to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey," the presidency said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, without elaborating.
Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson welcomed the move and said Stockholm was looking forward to becoming a Nato member. "Now it remains for the parliament to deal with the question," he said on X.
There is no set timetable 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.
Sweden and Finland applied to join Nato last year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Finland's membership was sealed in April, in a historic expansion of the alliance, but Sweden's bid had been held up by Turkey and Hungary.
Nato through the years - in pictures
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British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin signs the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington on April 4, 1949. All photos: Getty -
The North Atlantic Treaty showing the signatures of the foreign secretaries and ambassadors of the original signing nations - Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the US -
A meeting of the North Atlantic Council deputies in 1951 in London, attended by Gen Dwight D Eisenhower, centre -
Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay, Secretary General of Nato, with the newly adopted Nato emblem in 1952 -
Belgian Foreign Minister Paul-Henri Spaak holds a press conference in Paris after taking over from Hastings Ismay as Nato chief in 1956 -
The opening speech at the Nato summit in Paris in 1957 -
Some of the Nato vessels gathered for Exercise Medflex Invicta in Malta in 1961 -
A McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter-bomber of the Royal Navy is launched from HMS Ark Royal during a Nato exercise in 1972 -
German Nato troops on manoeuvres in 1980 -
Lord Carrington, the new Secretary General of Nato, sits behind his desk in Brussels, Belgium, in 1984 -
A US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle refuels in the skies over Macedonia in 1999, as it flies missions in support of Nato Operation Allied Force -
Frigates, part of the Nato permanent fleet based in the Mediterranean Sea, enter the port of Piraeus, Greece, in 2003 -
US President George W Bush, US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, ambassador R Nicholas Burns and US Secretary of State Colin Powell attend the Nato summit in 2004 in Istanbul, Turkey -
Members of the military attend a commemoration for Nato soldiers during the 2009 summit in Kehl, Germany -
A protester throws a stone during clashes at the Nato summit in 2009 in Strasbourg, France -
A Polish soldier sits in a tank as a Nato flag flies behind during military exercises in Zagan, Poland, in 2015 -
Guests depart after attending the opening ceremony at the 2018 Nato summit in Brussels -
Nato leaders listen to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson while attending the summit in 2019 in Watford, England -
Soldiers from the Royal Welsh Battlegroup take part in manoeuvres during a Nato exercise on the Estonian-Latvian border in 2022 in Voru, Estonia -
Secretary General of Nato Jens Stoltenberg meets troops at the Tapa Army Base in 2022 in Tallinn, Estonia -
Polish soldiers hold a Nato flag in 2022 at a training ground in Orzysz, Poland -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Mr Stoltenberg attend a joint press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, in April 2023
Turkey, which has Nato's second-biggest army, has long been seeking US congressional approval for a $20 billion sale of F-16 jets and modernisation kits. Mr Erdogan has previously linked Sweden's Nato bid to US support for its request.
