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Turkish Parliament receives protocol on Finland's accession to NATO

Parliamentarians will vote on the document after the presidium considers it

ANKARA, March 17. /TASS/. A protocol on Finland's accession to NATO was submitted on Friday to the presidium of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (the parliament - TASS) for consideration, the Anadolu Agency reported.

According to its information, the protocol was previously signed by the country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan following talks with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto.

Parliamentarians will vote on the document after the presidium considers it.

Erdogan said earlier on Friday that Ankara was ready to ratify Finland's accession to NATO.

In May 2022, Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership, however, their entry bid was immediately stonewalled by Ankara who demanded that the Nordic countries declare Kurdish organizations to be terrorist ones, extradite persons to Turkey, who are accused of terrorist activity or aiding and abetting the 2016 coup d’etat attempt, along with removing bans on arms supplies to Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andresson, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on June 28, ahead of the Madrid-hosted NATO summit. The talks yielded a memorandum on Sweden’s and Finland’s accession to NATO, which is to be ratified by all the bloc’s member states.

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