Turkey parliament foreign affairs panel approves ratification of Finland's NATO membership

A commission in the Turkish parliament has reportedly voted to approve the legislation that would ratify Finland’s membership in the NATO alliance. This follows the announcement made by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan that Ankara would approve Helsinki’s bid to join NATO.

The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs commission on Thursday reportedly approved the legislation that would ratify Finland’s NATO bid, according to state media outlet TRT Haber. This would make Finland one step closer to formally joining the military alliance. The legislation is still up for a full vote by the general assembly and is expected to vote on ratification by mid-April ahead of its recess and the country’s parliamentary and presidential elections that will take place in May.

The approval by the panel follows the announcement Erdogan made last week during the visit of Finnish President Sauli Niinisto that Ankara would begin the ratification of Helsinki’s application to join the NATO alliance. Despite giving the green light to Finland, Erdogan had yet to announce Ankara’s approval to ratify Sweden’s bid.

Both Finland and Sweden broke their long-running military non-alignment stances in applying to join the NATO alliance last year as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, Turkey has raised objections to the applications of the two Nordic countries, especially Sweden. Ankara claims that Stockholm has not done enough in cracking down on groups Turkey deems as terrorists that are based in Sweden.

Turkey is considered the holdout in the 30-member alliance due to its objections to Sweden. The ruling party of Hungary, the only other NATO country that has yet to formally ratify the applications but has recently signaled delays in the ratification process, has previously said it will approve both countries’ bids to join the alliance.

On the same day, Niinisto signed the legislation that officially allowed Finland to join NATO during a ceremony. The signing of the legislation this week follows the Finnish parliament’s passage of the legislation that incorporated the NATO alliance’s founding treaties back on March 1.

The United States has previously urged the swift approval and ratification of both Finland and Sweden’s bids to join the alliance.