The Turkish parliament's foreign affairs commission approved Sweden's NATO membership bid on Tuesday.
Sweden and Finland asked to join NATO last year in the face of Russia's invasion of Ukraine © Mena Today
The Turkish parliament's foreign affairs commission approved Sweden's NATO membership bid on Tuesday, in a key step toward enlarging the Western bloc after 19 months of delays in which Ankara demanded terror-related concessions from Stockholm.
The next step is a full parliament vote that is also expected to pass, likely to be held within weeks. Erdogan would then sign it into law, concluding a process that frustrated some of Ankara's allies and tested its Western ties.
Sweden and Finland asked to join NATO last year in the face of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While Ankara ratified Finland, it has raised objections to Sweden's bid over what it said was Stockholm's protection of groups that Ankara deems terrorists.
While NATO member Hungary has also not ratified Sweden's membership, Turkey is seen as the main roadblock to adding the Scandinavian nation to the military alliance and bolstering its defences in the Baltic Sea region.
Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever,; Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Tuvan Gumrukcu
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that "strong and model NATO ally" Greece and the United States are launching new counterterrorism information sharing between their law enforcement agencies.
The mayor of Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city and a bastion of its secular opposition, joined President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party (AKP) on Wednesday, giving it the mayoralty of a city it has never won at the ballot box.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will travel to Ankara and Istanbul from October 21 to 23, his office said on Tuesday, in what will be the first dedicated bilateral visit to NATO ally Turkey by a Canadian leader.
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