Turkey agreed to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, a breakthrough in an impasse clouding a leaders' summit in Madrid amid Europe's worst security crisis in decades triggered by the war in Ukraine.

The foreign ministers of these three countries ended up signing an agreement after several hours of meetings.

The move came after Stoltenberg held a meeting between the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.