Turkey has backed down on its threat to veto the applications of Sweden and Finland to join NATO and agreed to support their bids for membership of the military alliance.
It comes after four hours of talks between the leaders of the three nations during a summit of the military alliance in Spain's capital, Madrid.
"I am pleased to announce that we now have an agreement that paves the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO," said the group's Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg.
"Turkey, Finland and Sweden have signed a memorandum that addresses Turkey's concerns, including around arms exports and the fight against terrorism."
Sweden and Finland, both historically non-aligned countries, made the decision to join NATO following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Our foreign ministers signed a trilateral memorandum which confirms that Turkey will… support the invitation of Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO," Finnish President Niinisto said in a statement.
Mr Stoltenberg said NATO's 30 leaders would now invite Finland, which shares a 1,300 km border with Russia, and Sweden to join NATO and that they would become official "invitees".
He told reporters: "The door is open — the joining of Finland and Sweden into NATO will take place."
However, even with a formal invitation granted, NATO's 30 allied parliaments must ratify the decision by leaders, a process that could take up to a year.
Turkey's threats rescinded
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had threatened to veto Sweden and Finland's application to the military alliance over a series of issues, including an arms embargo placed by the two Nordic states on Turkey over its incursion into Syria to fight the Kurdish YPG militia in 2019.
Another issue Turkey had was over the extraditions of Kurdish figures who had sought asylum in Finland and Sweden.
But the main concern for Turkey had been from Sweden's apparent lack of action against Kurdish militant groups and their sympathisers – some elements of which Turkey said Sweden had been supporting.
Mr Stoltenberg said the terms of the deal involved Sweden intensifying work on Turkish extradition requests of suspected militants and amending Swedish and Finnish law to toughen their approach to them.
He also said Sweden and Finland would lift their restrictions on selling weapons to Turkey.
"It is the understanding on the Turkish side that Sweden has been too permissive regarding the actions of groups that Turkey considers to be terrorist entities," former Turkish diplomat and director of the Istanbul-based Edam think tank Sinan Ulgen told the ABC ahead of the announcement.
"The core group, the PKK, is also on the terror list of both the EU and the US.
"Sweden also considers it a terrorist entity but has not been effective enough to combat its influence over its own territory."
The Turkish presidency statement said the four-way agreement reached on Tuesday meant: "Full cooperation with Turkey in the fight against the PKK and its affiliates."
It also said Sweden and Finland were "demonstrating solidarity with Turkey in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations".
ABC/wires
