NATO bid

Sweden says Turkey pledges to ratify its NATO bid ‘within weeks’

‘There were no new demands from the Turkish government,’ says Foreign Minister Tobias Billström.

BY STUART LAU

Turkey has promised Sweden it will ratify its bid to join NATO "within weeks," Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said Wednesday.

Referring to his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, with whom he spoke on Tuesday, Billström said: "He told me that he expected the ratification to take place within weeks. And of course, we don’t take anything for granted from the side of Sweden, but we look forward to this being completed."

The Turkish parliament's foreign affairs commission recently abruptly postponed a session to vote on Sweden's accession bid.

According to Billström, the top Turkish envoy didn't put forward any new conditions in the conversation. "There were no new demands from the Turkish government, so we look [at] our part as being fulfilled," he told reporters at the NATO foreign ministerial meeting.

Apart from Turkey, Hungary has also not ratified Sweden's membership status in the alliance.