Biden to meet Turkish leader as Swedish and Finnish NATO bids stall
Katherine Doyle
Video Embed
President Joe Biden will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey as the U.S. leader’s push to expand the trans-Atlantic alliance to include two new Nordic members meets continued Turkish resistance.
Biden will discuss Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership applications, as well as the U.S.-Turkey relationship, when he meets with Erdogan Wednesday on the sidelines of NATO’s annual summit in Madrid, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. The two leaders spoke by phone on Tuesday.
“We do expect at some point tomorrow President Erdogan and President Biden have a chance to talk,” Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.
NATO ALLIES SPLIT OVER HOW TO AVOID ‘WORLD WAR III’ WITH RUSSIA
The face-to-face meeting is the first since Erdogan raised objections to Finnish and Swedish membership in the alliance and comes on the heels of separate efforts by Finland and Sweden to assuage the Turkish leader’s concerns. Every NATO member must approve the addition of a new country, leaving Finland and Sweden’s applications in limbo until the stalemate can be resolved.
Sullivan said there was not yet a “fixed time or framework” for the meeting and downplayed the notion that it would focus on Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden’s membership effort.
“We don’t anticipate that that’s going to be the central focus of the president’s meeting with President Erdogan,” Sullivan said.
Biden’s campaign to fast-track NATO membership for the two neutral Nordic countries has stalled over Erdogan’s objections.
Erdogan has protested the two countries’ support for Kurdish militants that he calls “terrorist organizations” and a weapons embargo on Turkey. He has also said that he wants Turkey to return to an F-35 fighter jet program.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Finland and Sweden applied to join the alliance after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Washington has strongly supported their bids.
iFrame Object
