Turkey supported Finland’s application for membership in April, but kept Sweden waiting along with Hungary.

The Turkish parliament will then debate Sweden’s application to join NATO Months of delays that have strained Ankara’s relations with its Western allies, with a vote expected this week.

The debate in the Grand National Assembly is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, state media reported, with the vote expected to take place the same day. The AFP news agency reported that the vote could take place on Thursday.

Ratification by Turkey would take place Hungary as the last holdout in an accession process that Sweden and its neighbor Finland began in response Russia’s invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago.

Finland became the 31st member of the military alliance last April. Its membership roughly doubled the length of NATO’s border with Russia and significantly strengthened the defenses of three small Baltic states that joined the bloc after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Sweden and Finland pursued a policy of military non-alignment during the Cold War confrontation between Russia and the United States.

However, Russia’s invasion of the western neighbor triggered Europe’s largest and most brutal land battle since World War II and upended geopolitical calculations.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s opposition to Sweden’s NATO membership reflected his more nuanced stance toward Moscow.

Ankara has benefited from maintaining and even expanding trade with Russia while supplying Ukraine with drones and other vital weapons.

Erdogan was also one of the few NATO leaders to hold regular meetings and phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Turkish media reported that Putin could make his first wartime visit to Turkey next month.

US fighter jets

Erdogan’s objections to Sweden’s offer initially focused on Stockholm’s perceived acceptance of Kurdish groups that Ankara views as “terrorists.”

Sweden responded by tightening its anti-terrorism legislation and other security measures demanded by Erdogan against members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), also classified as a “terrorist” group by the European Union and the United States.

Sweden and NATO members Finland, Canada and the Netherlands also took steps to ease Turkey’s arms export policies.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Turkish Parliament agreed to the Swedish offer last month to Erdogan forwarded brings it to Parliament in October.

However, Erdogan has now done so urged Washington to follow him has made good on its promise to deliver a series of F-16 fighter jets to the aging Turkish air force.

Erdogan discussed his demands by telephone with US President Joe Biden last month.

U.S. officials have argued that Turkey’s request could receive the necessary congressional approval if Sweden’s NATO membership goes through – a position that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated during a visit to Istanbul this month.

“We have not yet analyzed any words about how ready we are for Sweden to formally join the alliance,” US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said after it was announced that Turkey was finally ready to ratify Sweden’s candidacy .

“We have felt this for a long time [Sweden] has fulfilled its commitment and we look forward to further developing this process.”