A key committee in the Turkish Parliament on Tuesday gave the green light for Sweden’s NATO membership, bringing the Nordic country one step closer to joining the U.S.-led defense organization and the end of a 19-month standoff.

Following a nearly five-hour session, the Committee on Foreign Affairs signed Sweden's membership protocol, which will now be forwarded to the General Assembly of the Turkish Parliament for a final vote, although it’s not immediately clear when it will be.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan must sign off for the bill to come into effect.

Sweden and Finland abandoned their decadeslong neutrality and sought membership in NATO amid heightened security concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Finland became NATO’s 31st member earlier this year after Türkiye’s Parliament ratified its bid.

Hungary, the only other NATO holdout on Sweden 19 months after it applied for membership, has not announced when the country’s ratification may occur. Decisions within the alliance must be unanimous.

‘Stronger’

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg hailed the committee vote, and said he counted on Türkiye and Hungary to complete their ratifications "as soon as possible."

"Sweden's membership will make NATO stronger," he said in a statement.

Sweden's foreign minister said the next step was the vote in the Turkish Parliament.

"We look forward to becoming a member of NATO," Tobias Billström said on the website of the Swedish public television broadcaster SVT Nyheter.

The process is still fraught with problems.

Erdoğan dropped his objection to Sweden’s membership during a NATO summit in July, but it took him several months to send the bill to Parliament for ratification and weeks for the parliamentary committee to give its consent.

In December, Erdoğan linked Sweden's membership to the U.S. Congress "simultaneously" agreeing to Türkiye’s requested purchase of dozens of F-16 fighter jets and spare parts. He also said NATO allies, including Canada, should lift arms embargoes imposed on Ankara.

F-16 sales

The U.S. State Department also welcomed the Turkish approval, saying that it "looks forward to swift passage by full Parliament."

"As a highly capable defense partner, Sweden's prompt accession into NATO will strengthen the alliance," a State Department spokesperson told Anadolu Agency (AA).

On when the State Department plans to move forward with the sale of F-16 jets to Türkiye, the spokesperson said the U.S. would not confirm or comment on arms transfers until it has been formally notified to Congress.

"President Biden has long been clear that he supports modernizing Türkiye's F-16 fleet, which will improve its NATO interoperability," the spokesperson added.

During Tuesday’s debate at the parliamentary committee, opposition legislator Oğuz Kaan Salıcı questioned whether the government had received assurances from the United States concerning the F-16s’ sale.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration backs Türkiye’s F-16 request but within the U.S. Congress, there is strong opposition to selling arms to Türkiye.

"Sweden's NATO membership and F-16 sales to Türkiye will be handled in coordination to some extent ... because unfortunately, neither country trusts the other," Özgür Ünlühisarcıklı, the Ankara office director of the U.S. German Marshall Fund think tank, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

In 2019, Ankara was excluded from the U.S.-led F-35 joint strike fighter program in retaliation for its decision to acquire an advanced Russian missile defense system that NATO views as an operational security threat.

Biden's administration has repeatedly promised to move forward with the $20 billion (TL 586.26 billion) F-16 sale, but lawmakers have blocked it over what Türkiye calls "political motivations," including Ankara’s past tensions with Greece.

"There is no strong consensus in Parliament on Sweden's NATO membership, nor in the U.S. Congress on the sale of F-16s to Türkiye," Ünlühisarcıklı said.

Erdoğan's anti-Israel rhetoric after the start of its brutal attacks on the blockaded Gaza Strip in response to an incursion by Palestinian resistance group Hamas has also stoked concerns in Washington.

"Although the issues are not related, Türkiye's statements supporting Hamas further complicated the F-16 process," Ünlühisarcıklı said, adding that the killing of Turkish soldiers by PKK terrorists last weekend could also factor into Sweden's NATO membership.

"But if Biden and Erdoğan show the necessary will, we can expect the process to be concluded soon," he added.

Ankara’s wrath

Ankara’s opposition to Swedish membership in NATO has largely stemmed from the Nordic country’s tolerance of members and sympathizers of the PKK, a terrorist group that has led a bloody campaign against the Turkish state since the 1980s, killing over 40,000 civilians, as well as of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which orchestrated a bloody coup attempt in 2016.

Sweden at the start of the summer took steps to tighten its coynterterrorism laws, making support for extremist organizations punishable by up to eight years in prison but a series of anti-Türkiye and Islamophobic protests held in Stockholm, some of which involved the burning of the Quran, has also angered Ankara and the Turkish public.

Although these demonstrations were condemned by the Swedish government, the Turkish government criticized Sweden for allowing displays of hate speech under the pretext of freedom of speech.

While Sweden strengthened its counterterrorism laws to address Ankara’s security concerns, NATO agreed to establish a special coordinator for counterterrorism and appointed Assistant Secretary-General Tom Goffus to the position.

Stoltenberg said at the alliance’s summit meeting in July that Sweden had agreed "to support actively the efforts to reinvigorate Türkiye’s EU accession process." Sweden announced it would seek improved customs arrangements and take steps to implement visa-free European travel for Turkish citizens.