Turkey may ratify Sweden's NATO membership 'within weeks': Swedish minister

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said on Wednesday (Nov 29) that Turkey has conveyed Sweden that it expects to ratify the latter's accession to NATO within weeks. Turkey's nod to Sweden's inclusion in NATO military alliance is a longstanding issue.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, Sweden and Finland abandoned their decades-old neutral stance and applied to join NATO. Finland has since been included but Sweden's accession has been held up due to delay from Turkey, itself a NATO member.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been raising objections that Finland and Sweden have been offering protection to groups considered terrorists by Ankara.

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After a considerable delay, Turkey okayed Finland's NATO membership in April this year, but is yet to take final decision on Sweden.

"I had a bilateral with my colleague, the (Turkish) foreign minister ... where he told me he expected the ratification to take place within weeks," Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told reporters before the second day of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

"The Turkish foreign minister (Hakan Fidan) didn't present a date but said 'within weeks'," Billstrom said.

There was no immediate reaction from Turkey.

What's the hold-up?

Turkey has been demanding that Sweden should act in order to rein in functioning of the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) on its soil. Turkey, along with the European Union and the US consider PKK a terrorist group.

Sweden has since introduced an anti-terrorism bill. The legislation makes membership of a terrorist organisation illegal. Sweden has also lifted arm export restrictions on Turkey.

There was a feeling within NATO that ratification about Sweden's inclusion would be completed by now.

Earlier this year, Erdogan linked Sweden's NATO membership to the issue of Turkey's EU membership. The talks on the latter issue have been frozen for years now.

On Wednesday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that there were "open issues" still and they needed to be addressed before an accession can happen.

Hungary too, has not yet ratified Sweden's NATO membership.

"(Prime Minister) Viktor Orban has repeatedly said that Hungary won't be the last to ratify Sweden's membership," Billstrom said.

"That means that it is more in the hands of Ankara than maybe of Budapest. We expect white smoke from Budapest the moment there is white smoke from Ankara," Billstrom said.

(With inputs from agencies)