The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee will discuss ratifying Sweden’s NATO membership bid as part of its regular agenda as the issue was not so urgent for Ankara as for some other countries, its chair said on Wednesday.
President Tayyip Erdogan submitted the ratification bill for Sweden’s NATO membership bid to parliament last month, a move welcomed by Stockholm as it would clear the way for it to join the Western defence alliance.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said he wants a ”speedy vote” by Turkey’s parliament and that the process was ”going well”. But parliament’s foreign affairs committee chair Fuat Oktay said Turkey was in no hurry.
”Sweden’s NATO membership is just one of the international agreements on our agenda waiting for ratification,” Oktay told a meeting of lawmakers. ”We will discuss it when the time comes … within the framework of our own priorities… What is urgent for others is not necessarily urgent for (us).” Läs artikel