Turkey agreed to advance Sweden’s NATO bid on Monday after intense diplomacy in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, where a two-day summit of the alliance is set to kick off Tuesday. 

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced Monday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had agreed to ask its parliament to advance Stockholm’s bid to join the transatlantic alliance, calling it a "historic step which makes all NATO allies stronger and safer."

The news came after Erdogan met with Stoltenberg and Kristersson for a second time Monday, part of a last ditch attempt to get Ankara to approve Sweden's bid. 

The breakthrough deals a blow to Russia's efforts to drive a wedge in the Western security alliance and will likely prompt Hungary, another holdout, to approve Sweden's bid as well.

It remains unclear what Erdogan secured in exchange for his climb down other than NATO's pledge to appoint a "special coordinator for counterterrorism."

Erdogan had raised the stakes further ahead the key summit in Vilnius and a meeting with Biden tomorrow, suggesting that Ankara’s stalled membership talks with the European Union should be revived in exchange for greenlighting Sweden’s accession to the alliance. 

“First, pave the way for Turkey in the European Union and then let us pave the way for Sweden, just as we paved the way for Finland,” Erdogan told reporters before taking off for the Lithuanian capital, where he held trilateral talks with Stoltenberg and Kristersson which apparently yielded no results. 

NEWSRAEL: If Erdogan hopes to be allowed into the EU, he is likely to be disappointed. Such a move would bring a wave of Turks moving to Europe to find work which would be good for Turkey and Erdogan in two ways: 1) The workers would send much-needed foreign currency back to Turkey and 2) It would allow Erdogan to further his aims in Europe by using his "troops" - the very migrants who would stay "loyal" to him.