US President Joe Biden has told prime minister Ulf Kristersson of Sweden that he is “looking forward” to the country’s stalled Nato membership bid winning final approval, amid doubts that Turkey will withdraw its opposition in time for a major summit next week.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Biden said he wanted to reiterate that he “fully, fully supports Sweden’s membership in Nato” and was “anxiously looking forward” to the bid being ratified.
Kristersson thanked the US president for maintaining “transatlantic unity” during the upheaval sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and praised Biden’s “strong support” for Sweden’s Nato bid, which is being held up by Turkey and Hungary.
After his meeting with the US president, Kristersson said that he and Biden had agreed that the “Vilnius meeting in a week is certainly appropriate time for Sweden’s entry, but only Turkey can take Turkey’s decisions.”
The Oval Office meeting kicks off a string of diplomatic events for Biden, centred on Nato.
He leaves Sunday for a one-day trip to close ally Britain, then attends the Nato summit in Vilnius and finishes up with a stop in the alliance’s newest member Finland.
Both Finland and Sweden dropped their official neutrality to request Nato entry in response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. Biden sees the bloc’s expansion and its mammoth efforts to arm and support Ukraine’s forces as a strategic defeat for Moscow – and his own biggest diplomatic achievement.
But expansion of Nato requires unanimous ratification from the existing 31 members.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not say whether Biden planned to reach out directly to his counterparts in Turkey and Hungary before the summit.
“He’s been pretty, pretty steadfast” on the need to approve the application, Jean-Pierre said. “Sweden is a strong, capable defense partner that shares Nato’s values.”
In addition to discussing efforts to bolster Kyiv during its difficult counteroffensive to oust Russian troops occupying swaths of Ukraine’s east and south, the two leaders also discussed transatlantic coordination on China, climate change and emerging technologies.
Western officials had hoped to formally welcome Sweden into the bloc before next Tuesday’s summit.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, however, has frustrated western leaders by linking approval for Sweden’s bid to demands that Stockholm crack down on members of opposition Kurdish movements, such as the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), which Turkey says is a terrorist group.
Sweden says it has met those demands, but another flashpoint recently emerged after a protest outside a Stockholm mosque in which an Iraqi man set fire to pages from the Qur’an.
On Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan rejected making the Nato summit a deadline, saying “we never approve of the use of time pressure as a method.”
US secretary of state Antony Blinken spoke to Fidan on Wednesday, encouraging Turkey to support Sweden, the state department said in a statement.
“Secretary Blinken stressed the importance of Nato unity in such a critical time and encouraged Turkey’s support for Sweden to join the Nato Alliance now,” it said.
Hungary has indicated it will follow Turkey’s lead in the dispute. Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said Tuesday he had been holding regular consultations with Fidan about Sweden.
Top diplomats from Turkey and Sweden will meet Thursday at Nato headquarters in Brussels.
The diplomatic activity comes as Ukraine is in the early phases of a long-promised push to try to liberate territories occupied by Russia.
The Biden administration is hoping success in that offensive will buoy public opinion ahead of the 2024 presidential election, in which generous US aid to Ukraine may become a contentious issue.
With Agence France-Presse and Reuters
