Turkey's parliament approves Sweden's NATO membership bid

FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at a press conference during a NATO summit in Madrid,
FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at a press conference during a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain June 30, 2022. REUTERS/Yves Herman
Source: X00380

Turkey's parliament approves Sweden's NATO membership bid

Turkey's parliament approved Sweden's NATO membership bid on Tuesday following more than four hours of debate, clearing a last major hurdle to expanding the Western military alliance after 20 months of delays.

President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, its nationalist MHP allies, and the main opposition CHP voted in favour of the bid in the general assembly, while opposition nationalist, Islamist and leftist parties voted against it.

Erdogan will sign the bill into law, likely in coming days, thus ending a lengthy process that has both frustrated some of Ankara's Western allies and enabled it to extract concessions.

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Hungary remains the only NATO member yet to ratify Stockholm's accession.

This article was produced by Reuters news agency. It has not been edited by Global South World.