Turkey’s parliament’s foreign affairs committee has approved a bill endorsing Finland’s request to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), state TV news channel TRT said, bringing Helsinki one step closer to joining the alliance.
The bill still needs to be approved by parliament in plenary session. This is expected to happen before parliament concludes its work in mid-April, in preparation for holding the parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for May 14.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week during his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto’s visit to Turkey that parliament would approve Helsinki’s accession to NATO.
But Turkey delayed approving Sweden’s request to join the alliance. Ankara says Sweden has not gone far enough to crack down on people Turkey considers terrorists. The three countries signed an agreement on this issue last year in the Spanish capital, Madrid, on the sidelines of a NATO summit.
Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO last May. The parliaments of all the 30 member states of the alliance must approve the applications to join the new members.
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