VILNIUS - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday agreed to forward to Parliament Sweden’s bid to join the Nato military alliance, appearing to end months of drama over an issue that had strained the bloc as war raged on in Ukraine.

Sweden and Finland applied for Nato membership in 2022, abandoning their policy of military non-alignment that had lasted through the decades of the Cold War, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

While Finland’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation membership was green-lighted in April, Turkey and Hungary have yet to clear Sweden’s bid.

Stockholm has been working to join the bloc at the alliance’s summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius that began on Tuesday.

“I’m glad to announce… that President Erdogan has agreed to forward the accession protocol for Sweden to the grand national assembly as soon as possible, and work closely with the assembly to ensure ratification,” Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said, describing it as a historic step.

He had got Mr Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson together for several hours of talks on the eve of the summit as he sought to finally break the deadlock.

Mr Erdogan had held out for months, saying Sweden’s accession hinged on the implementation of a deal reached in 2022 during the military alliance’s summit in Madrid and that no one should expect compromises from Ankara.

Turkey has accused Sweden of not doing enough against people Ankara sees as terrorists, mainly members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.

Mr Erdogan and Mr Kristersson appeared relaxed ahead of the meeting, with the Swedish leader joking about parking his plane next to the bigger Turkish aircraft at Vilnius Airport.

“This has been a good day for Sweden,” Mr Kristersson told reporters, saying a joint statement on Monday represented “a very big step” towards the final ratification of Sweden’s membership of Nato.

The statement issued by both countries said Sweden had reiterated that it would not provide support to the Kurdish groups and would actively support efforts to reinvigorate Turkey’s EU accession process.

Mr Erdogan on Monday said the EU should open the way for Ankara’s accession to that bloc before Turkey’s Parliament approved Sweden’s bid to join Nato.

Mr Stoltenberg said Mr Erdogan had agreed to push ratification in Parliament “as soon as possible”, but he could not give a specific calendar.

It took two weeks for Turkey’s Parliament to ratify Finland’s membership.

After Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff said last Thursday that Budapest would no longer block Sweden’s Nato membership ratification, Turkish approval would remove the last hurdle for Swedish accession to Nato, applications for which must be approved by all members.

The US and its allies have sought to pressure Ankara for months.

Some Nato partners believe that Turkey, which requested in October 2021 to buy US$20 billion (S$26.9 billion) of Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernisation kits for its existing warplanes, has been using Swedish membership to pressure Washington on the warplanes.

US President Joe Biden, who welcomed the announcement, is due to hold face-to-face talks with Mr Erdogan during the summit.

REUTERS