Sweden's parliament voted in favor of a bill for the country's NATO membership on Wednesday.
The vote, which paved the way for the country's NATO accession and provides the necessary legal framework, passed with 269 votes in favour and 37 against, with 43 MPs not attending in Sweden's 349 seat parliament.
"NATO membership is the best way to safeguard Sweden's security and to contribute in solidarity to the security of the entire Euro-Atlantic area," Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told parliament during the debate that preceded the vote.
Only two of the eight parties in the Swedish parliament — the Left and the Greens —were against joining the trans-Atlantic defence alliance.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said on Wednesday that despite the current Turkish opposition, he was confident that Sweden could become a member by the next NATO summit in Lithuania in July.
Finland and Sweden applied to NATO together, assuming that the two Nordic allies would join on the same timetable.
They then ran into obstacles from Türkiye, however, which now opposes Swedish membership but not that of Finland.
Hungary has not raised objections to either application but has yet to hold a ratification vote.
In another setback for Sweden, Hungary announced that it would vote on Finland's ratification on March 27, but Sweden's bid would be decided on "later."
NATO, in the meantime, announced that it is continuing the military integration process of the two countries, though the application process is not finalized. The alliance's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday that he was "absolutely confident," that Sweden would also become a full member of NATO.
"I really believe that it will be good for NATO," Stoltenberg said. "It will be good for Finland, it will be good for Sweden, it will be good for all of us to have Finland and Sweden in as quickly as possible. That is also the reason I worked hard to agree last year, which was a historic decision that all NATO Allies, also Türkiye and Hungary made to invite Finland and Sweden. And since then, since June last year, we had the quickest accession process in NATO's modern history because we remember that Finland and Sweden applied in May. In June, they were already invited," he added.
