TW Newsdesk, March 18:President Tayyip Erdogan stated Turkey’s parliament will start ratifying Finland’s accession to NATO, lifting the biggest remaining hurdle to enlarging the Western defence alliance as war rages in Ukraine, though he held off approving Sweden’s bid.

Speaking in Ankara alongside Finnish counterpart SauliNiinisto, Erdogan stated that Helsinki had won Turkey’s blessing after taking concrete steps to keep its promises to crack down on what Ankara sees as terrorists and to free up defence exports.