Turkey confirmed yesterday Thursday at NATO its commitment to ratify Sweden’s admission to the international organization, as foreseen by an agreement concluded at the alliance’s summit in Vilnius in July, its Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg assured.

NATO defense ministers, who met last Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels, put pressure on Hungary and Turkey to ratify Sweden’s membership in the alliance as soon as possible, said an AFP source familiar with the information.

Only these two of the 31 member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have yet to ratify the admission request submitted by Sweden at the same time as Finland, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022.

Finland formally joined the alliance in April; Sweden sees its own request blocked by Budapest and Ankara.

At the Vilnius summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged to push forward the request to ratify Sweden’s admission to his country’s parliament. But nothing of the sort happened after Turkish parliamentarians resumed their work in early October.

“Turkish Defense Minister (Yasar Guler) has confirmed that Turkey remains committed to the agreement reached in Vilnius to finalize Sweden’s admission” to the military alliance, Mr Stoltenberg told the press.

“I now expect the Turkish government to submit the accession protocol to parliament and work with it to guarantee its speedy ratification,” he added.

According to diplomatic sources, Turkey is playing Sweden’s card to secure a green light from the US regarding the sale of F-16 fighter jets.

The administration of Joe Biden does not oppose it, but it is blocked by the US Congress.

According to another NATO diplomat, the Turkish government also continues to make arguments related to the fight against terrorism to justify the delay in the process of approving Sweden’s admission.

Ankara accuses Stockholm of being too tolerant of Kurdish movements present in Sweden, which Turkey is fighting in the name of fighting “terrorism”.