Sweden Moves a Step Closer to NATO Membership After Turkey’s Parliamentary Committee Gives Approval

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) shakes hands with Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (R) as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg looks on prior to a meeting ahead of a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 10, 2023. Yves Herman, Pool Photo via AP

ANKARA, Turkey—The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee gave its consent to Sweden’s bid to join NATO on Tuesday, drawing the previously nonaligned Nordic country closer to membership in the Western military alliance.

Sweden’s accession protocol will now need to be approved in the Turkish parliament’s general assembly for the last stage of the legislative process in Turkey. No date has been set.