The Turkish Parliament’s foreign affairs committee gave its consent to Sweden’s bid to join NATO on Tuesday, drawing the previously non-aligned Nordic country closer to membership in the Western military alliance.

Sweden’s accession protocol will now need to be approved in the general assembly for the last stage of the legislative process in Turkey. No date has been set.

[There is still room for mischief by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of course, but it’s difficult to believe that this vote would have taken place without his approval. I’d bet that he quietly got some of the concessions he demanded from the Biden administration. — Ed]