Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to support Sweden’s bid to join Nato, the military alliance’s chief Jens Stoltenberg has said.
At a briefing, he said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would forward Sweden’s bid to the Turkish parliament and “ensure ratification”.
Earlier, he had appeared to suggest Turkey would back Sweden if the EU re-opened membership talks with Ankara.
Turkey has criticised Sweden for hosting Kurdish militants.
Mr Stoltenberg was speaking in Vilnius after hosting talks between Mr Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Ulf Kristersson ahead of a Nato summit in the Lithuanian capital.
“President Erdogan has agreed to forward the accession protocol for Sweden to the Grand National Assembly [Turkey’s parliament] as soon as possible and work closely with the assembly to ensure ratification,” Mr Stoltenberg said.
He described this as a “historic step”, but stressed that a “clear date” could not be given for when Sweden could join the military alliance.
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