VILNIUS, July 10 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to forward to parliament Sweden's bid to join the NATO military alliance, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday, on the eve of a NATO summit in Vilnius.
Stoltenberg declined to give a date for when Sweden's accession would be ratified by the Turkish parliament, the grand national assembly, which would decide on the exact timing.
Applications to the alliance must be approved by all NATO members and while Finland's was given the go-ahead in April, Turkey and Hungary have held off on clearing Sweden's bid.
Stockholm has been working hard at its bid ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, together with the United States and its allies, urging Turkey to abandon its opposition.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said on Thursday that Budapest would not block Sweden's NATO membership ratification.
Persons:
Tayyip Erdogan, Sweden's, Jens Stoltenberg, Erdogan, Stoltenberg, Finland's, Viktor Orban's, John Irish, Sabine Siebold, Johan Ahlander, Anna Ringstrom, Justyna Pawlak, Niklas Pollard
Organizations:
NATO, Kurdistan Workers Party, Thomson
Locations:
VILNIUS, Vilnius, Sweden, Turkish, Finland, Ukraine, Turkey, Hungary, Stockholm, United States, Hungarian, Budapest