NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Thursday that he will visit Ankara "in the near future" to push Sweden's bid to join the alliance, following the re-election of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
This comes as Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Bielstrom said that his country has met all the conditions for joining NATO, calling on Turkey and Hungary to lift their opposition to the move without delay.
Speaking at the start of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Oslo, Billström said: "Sweden has fulfilled all the commitments we made at last year's Madrid summit, including new legislation on terrorism."
"It's time for Turkey and Hungary to start ratifying Sweden's membership in NATO."
The Swedish parliament recently passed a new law banning activities linked to extremist groups, especially the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Turkey considers a "terrorist" group, which comes into force on Thursday, boosting its terrorism-related legislation.
Stoltenberg said at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Oslo: "I am confident that Sweden will be a member, and we are working for that to happen as soon as possible."
"I spoke with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this week. I will also travel to Ankara in the near future to continue to discuss how we can ensure that membership is granted to Sweden as quickly as possible."
Stoltenberg stressed that his message to the Turkish president is that it is in the interest of the alliance for Sweden to be one of its members, noting that he is "confident that Hungary will also ratify the accession protocol."
Sweden, along with Finland, applied to join NATO in the wake of the Russian war on Ukraine, but they faced objections from Turkey.
On June 28, 2022, Turkey, Sweden and Finland signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding on the latter's accession to the alliance after pledging to respond to Ankara's demands on cooperation in the "fight against terrorism" file.
But the atmosphere between Turkey and Sweden has been tense after Swedish authorities allowed the burning of the Koran in front of the Turkish embassy in the capital Stockholm.
At the end of February, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that there are pledges regarding Sweden's accession to NATO, pointing out that Ankara's approval of Stockholm membership is not possible unless those pledges are implemented.
Joining NATO requires the consent of all 30 NATO member states, including Turkey.