US official: Türkiye informs NATO that Sweden’s request will be ratified before the end of the year
A senior US State Department official said that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told his counterparts in NATO on Tuesday that he is working hard to ratify Sweden’s application to join the alliance, a matter that the Turkish Parliament is currently discussing.
The official added that Fidan presented a possible timetable for the matter to take place before the end of the year.
The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, continued, “I will say that the summary of the meeting is that the ratification will take place before the end of the year”.
The foreign ministers of NATO countries met in Brussels.
Some in the military alliance hoped that ratification of Sweden’s request had already been completed to hold an accession ceremony on the sidelines of the meeting.
Türkiye had informed NATO that the process of ratifying the Swedish request wouldn’t be completed by Tuesday’s meeting.
The US official added that Fidan informed his NATO counterparts during the meeting that he was working hard to resolve the issue.
In response to a question about whether Fidan provided a timetable for when the ratification process would be completed, the US official replied, “He said it would take a few weeks”.
Sweden and Finland both requested to join NATO in May last year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
