Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed the Turkish parliament's decision to ratify Finland's NATO membership, several Turkish media outlets reported on Saturday. The president's final decision has been published in Turkey's official gazette.
The Turkish parliament decided late on Thursday to ratify Finland's NATO membership. The president's signature concludes Ankara's drawn-out ratification of Finnish membership, which has been pending since last summer. Under Turkish law, Erdogan had up to 15 days to sign the ratification – and he waited nearly that long to sign North Macedonia's NATO ratification in 2020.
Turkey must still deliver the document ratifying Finland's NATO membership to Washington, DC, where the original 1947 NATO treaty is stored. Once the Turkish document is in the custody of the US State Department, Finland will be a NATO member state.
Turkey has not yet said when it plans to ratify Sweden's NATO application, which was filed at the same time as Finland's last May. The decision will not take place before Turkish elections in mid-May.
