Turkey had demanded that the Nordic countries stop supporting Kurdish militants in their country and lift the bans on some types of arms.

Turkey has lifted its veto to allowing Finland and Sweden to become member of NATO, at the organisation’s summit in Madrid.

Turkey had demanded that the Nordic countries stop supporting Kurdish militants in their country and lift the bans on some types of arms.

“Our foreign ministers signed a trilateral memorandum which confirms that Turkey will support the invitation of Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO,” said Finnish President Niinisto.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Sweden agreed to step up its work on Turkish extradition requests of suspected militants.

The two Nordic nations will also lift their restrictions on selling weapons to Turkey, he said.

Russia strongly opposes the two states joining Nato but the Russian invasion of Ukraine opened the way for such a membership.

U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the deal allowing the two countries to join the military alliance.

“We’re proving that NATO is more needed now than it ever has been,” tweeted Biden on Wednesday.

“We’ll approve a new NATO Strategic Concept, reaffirming the unity and capability of our Alliance to defend every inch of NATO territory,” he added.

30 countries are currently members of Nato.