Turkey's parliamentary committee approves Sweden’s NATO bid, paving way for full vote

ANKARA — The Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday approved Sweden’s accession to NATO, a prerequisite for the issue to be considered by a full parliamentary vote. 

The accession protocol will be voted on by the full parliament once Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus schedules a debate on the matter, though at the time of this writing, no timeframe has been set. 

This development comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having previously denied any link between the two issues, said last week that his country was seeking simultaneous progress on NATO expansion and Turkey’s request to purchase 40 F-16 fighter jets and roughly 50 modernization kits from the United States.  

After being excluded in 2019 from a consortium that produces new-generation F-35 fighter jets due to its purchase of Russian S-400 missile defense system, Ankara had sought to spend $20 billion to upgrade its military aircraft. While the Biden administration publicly endorsed the sale earlier this year, the State Department has yet to submit formal notification to Congress for its review.

The F-16 sale doesn’t require an approval by the Congress but US lawmakers have the right to veto the sale within 30 days following the State Department’s notification for review.

Some high-ranking members of Congress have threatened to block the sale unless Turkey implements key foreign policy reforms, including distancing itself from Russia and improving strained ties with Greece, a member of the European Union. 

After delaying a vote on Sweden’s NATO bid last month, the Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee decided last week to hold the vote following a rare phone call between Erdogan and US President Joe Biden. Amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, which is nearing the two-year mark, the Biden administration has come to consider the expansion of NATO a key a foreign policy priority. Turkey and Hungary remain the two holdouts that have so far refused to give Stockholm the green light. 

Ditching their historical non-aligned status, Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO in May 2022 in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Both Nordic countries took several steps to move the process along, including lifting de-facto defense embargoes against Ankara. Finland became a member in April while Sweden’s bid has so far been blocked. 

Sweden, which Erdogan has accused of harboring groups and individuals that it says pose a threat to Turkish national security, also amended its constitution and counterterrorism law in November 22 in a bid to convince Ankara to drop its objections.