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Turkey has informed NATO that Sweden's membership ratification will not be completed in time to allow for the accession ceremony during the alliance's foreign ministers' meeting next week, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.
Last week, the Turkish parliament's foreign affairs committee postponed a vote on Sweden's NATO membership, saying it needed further consideration. The commission is likely to resume debate on the issue on Tuesday or Wednesday, one of the sources said.
NATO foreign ministers will meet in Brussels on November 28 and 29, a meeting that some in the Western bloc had hoped would mark Sweden's acceptance. The Turkish Foreign Ministry has not commented.
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. Mr. Erdogan said the two Nordic countries were protecting groups that Turkey considers terrorists, 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 pushed through 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.
While Hungary has not yet ratified Sweden's membership, Turkey is seen as the main obstacle for Sweden's admission to NATO./ VOA
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