Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ended a months-long saga on Sweden’s NATO membership by signing into law a protocol for the Nordic country’s entry into the US-led military alliance, Agence France-Presse reported.
Turkey’s Official Gazette subsequently published the protocol on Sweden’s accession to NATO, a final technical step in Ankara’s approval process.
The Official Gazette’s publication of the law on Sweden’s accession to the alliance, which the Turkish parliament approved on Tuesday, ends a nearly two-year saga that tested Ankara’s relations with its Western allies.
Erdoğan’s signing off on the relevant documents mean that Turkey has completed all its required steps.
Turkey’s green light leaves Hungary as the last holdout in an accession process that Sweden and Finland, which had adhered to decades of military non-alignment, began in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.
Finland became the 31st nation of the alliance last April.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Thursday he was ready to meet his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban to help pave the way for Budapest’s quick approval of the bid.
NATO membership applications require unanimous ratifications by all alliance members.