Erdogan of Turkey is informed by the head of NATO that "the time has come" for Sweden to join the alliance

The president of Turkey has been informed by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that "the time has come" for Sweden to join the alliance. The only other NATO members that haven't formally accepted Sweden's application for membership are Turkey and Hungary. At their meeting on Friday on the fringes of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, Stoltenberg told The Associated Press that he pushed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to complete the process. "I met with President Erdogan this morning and I reaffirmed my message that Sweden's accession process needs to be completed," he added. Turkey has been delaying ratification for more than a year, claiming that Sweden is not paying enough attention to Turkey's security concerns, which include fighting militant Kurdish groups and other organizations that Ankara views as security risks. Erdogan's announcement at a July NATO meeting that he would submit membership paperwork to Parliament appeared to be a breakthrough, but the foreign affairs committee's discussion of the issue was deferred last month without a resolution.