Sweden and Türkiye plan to resume discussions in March on Sweden's membership of NATO, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told Swedish television on Wednesday evening.
"We have already been given a date for this discussion," Kristersson told the SVT broadcaster, without giving an exact date.
Sweden, together with Finland, applied for NATO membership in May, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
All 30 existing members of the defence alliance must ratify the accession of any new country. But Türkiye has been blocking the procedure for a long time, accusing Sweden in particular of not taking enough action against people and organizations Ankara classifies as terrorist.
At the end of January, Türkiye had cancelled planned consultations with Sweden and Finland scheduled for February, according to media reports.
The move came after a far-right politician set fire to a Qur'an in front of a mosque in Stockholm. The standstill in the negotiations had fuelled speculation about whether Finland might initially join NATO on its own.
Kristersson used his television appearance on Wednesday evening to make the case once again for Finland and Sweden to join at the same time.
"I am working hard to ensure that we both join together," Kristersson said. "Finland, after all, has an extremely long border with Russia. Helping each other and defending each other would work better if we were both in NATO."
Hungary, meanwhile - the only other NATO member whose ratification is still outstanding - has put the issue on the parliamentary agenda for next Wednesday, according to its latest schedule. The ratification vote, currently scheduled for March 6, is expected to pass easily.
