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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told his NATO counterparts today that he is working hard to ratify Sweden's NATO membership, which is currently being debated in the Turkish parliament.
The head of Turkish diplomacy estimated that by the end of the year Ankara will ratify the protocol for Sweden's membership in the North Atlantic Alliance, a senior official of the US State Department said today.
"The completion of the ratification will happen before the end of the year", said the official who asked to remain anonymous.
Sweden and Finland asked to join NATO in May last year, after the Kremlin's aggression against Ukraine.
At that time, President Tayyip Erdogan opposed the membership of both countries. Erdogan said the two Nordic countries were protecting groups that Turkey considers terrorists, also underlining their trade embargoes for protection. Turkey approved Finland's membership in April, while Sweden is still waiting.
Turkey has demanded that Sweden take more steps to rein in members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.
Stockholm responded with an anti-terrorism bill that makes it illegal to join a terrorist organization, while also lifting restrictions on arms exports to Turkey. Sweden says it has implemented the agreement signed last year.
Ratification requires the bill to be approved by Turkey's foreign affairs committee before it goes to a full parliamentary vote, which could take days or weeks.
President Erdogan will then sign it into law to end the process, the length of which has angered Ankara's allies and tested its Western ties.
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