Türkiye's parliament approves Finland's bid to join NATO

By Anadolu Staff

ANKARA (AA) - With the Turkish parliament approving Finland’s accession to NATO, all 30 members have now ratified the Nordic country's membership.

Finland received Ankara's official blessing for its request to join the military alliance, with 276 votes in favor.

Abandoning decades of military non-alignment after the launch of Russia’s war on Ukraine last year in February, Finland, along with Sweden, formally applied to join NATO last May.

NATO invited the two countries to join the alliance in June and the next month members signed the accession protocol, marking the start of the ratification process.

Full unanimity is required to admit new members into the military grouping.

In order to approve their request, Türkiye, a NATO member for over 70 years, asked Stockholm and Helsinki to take concrete action against terrorist groups such as the PKK and the Fetullah Terrorist Organization.

In June, the two Scandinavian countries signed a memorandum with Türkiye to address the latter's security concerns, and senior diplomats and officials from the three countries held various meetings to discuss the deal's implementation.

During the process, Ankara signaled it may consider approving Finland’s application before that of Sweden, and the green light was given on Thursday.

Türkiye says that despite legislation, Sweden still has to take the necessary steps against terrorism.