Türkiye, Hungary put Finland on course to joining NATO
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ended months of diplomatically charged delays on Friday and asked parliament to quickly back Finland's bid to join NATO.
Finland had initially aimed to join together with fellow NATO aspirant Sweden -- a Nordic power facing a litany of disputes with Turkey that ultimately sunk its chance to join the bloc before an alliance summit in July. But the bids still needed to be ratified by all 30 of the alliance members' parliaments -- a process that got hung up once it reached Turkey and Hungary.
"We decided to start the protocol of Finland's accession to NATO in our parliament," Erdogan told reporters after the talks. "The most important thing is that both Finland and Sweden become full members of NATO quickly, not whether they join at exactly the same time," Stoltenberg said. Erdogan had accused the Nordic neighbours of breaking the terms of a separate deal they reached in June 2022 under which Turkey agreed to approve the bids.
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