Sweden fulfills ´significant part´ of tasks for NATO bid: Turkey

Sweden has fulfilled an important part of demands by Türkiye for the Nordic country's NATO bid, Turkish parliament speaker Numan Kurtulmus said Wednesday, reported Xinhua.

"We see that Sweden also fulfills a significant part of its responsibilities," Kurtulmus told reporters.

"If we are to act jointly within an alliance, Türkiye has extremely legitimate expectations," he said, noting that Türkiye expected relevant countries to end "any kind of support" to terrorist groups and ban what it called anti-Turkish activities on their lands.

Sweden should act carefully and meticulously against Islamophobia in Europe, he noted, adding Ankara is not against NATO's expansion.

The Turkish parliament's foreign affairs committee approved Sweden's NATO bid following deliberation in December last year, a first step necessary for putting it to a full parliament vote.

Kurtulmus said that it was is up to the general assembly of the parliament to decide the timing of the vote after it returns from recess on Jan. 16.

A full parliamentary approval is needed before the protocol can be signed into law by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Türkiye approved Finland's NATO bid in March last year but has slow-walked Sweden's accession, demanding the Nordic country further address Ankara's security concerns.

Türkiye is under pressure from the United States to approve Sweden's accession to NATO, but Ankara has been holding up its ratification to press Washington to allow the sale of F-16 fighter jets.