US presses Turkey to lift opposition to Sweden's NATO bid as summit nears

WASHINGTON — The United States is pressing Turkey to lift its opposition to Sweden’s NATO membership with days to go before the alliance gathers for its high-stakes summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, on Tuesday. 

“We'll see where we are when we get to Vilnius,” US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith told reporters Friday. “You've heard the United States. Our interest is in getting Sweden into the alliance as soon as possible.” 

NATO leaders hope to present a united front against Russian President Vladimir Putin at the two-day summit next week. But analysts say it’s unlikely Turkey withdraws its objections to Sweden’s joining before the two-day meeting. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was recently elected to another five-year term, reiterated his opposition in a televised address Friday. 

“The essence of the alliance is the institution of mutual trust and solidarity,” Erdogan said in Istanbul. “How can Turkey trust a country where terrorists wander around on its streets?” 

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland abandoned decades of military nonalignment to seek membership in NATO, driven by concerns their countries could be next. 

Their requests to join the transatlantic alliance required the approval of all member states. Finland became NATO’s 31st member in April after holdouts Turkey and Hungary gave their approval. Neither has greenlit Sweden’s application, but Hungary’s foreign minister recently indicated his country would follow Turkey’s lead. 

Turkey has held up Sweden’s accession over concerns the Nordic country is harboring members of groups outlawed in Turkey, including the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Last week, the Turkish president criticized Stockholm for permitting a Quran-burning protest that the Swedish government called “Islamophobic.” 

In an effort to address Turkey’s security concerns, Sweden lifted its ban on exporting military equipment to Turkey and passed a constitutional amendment tightening its anti-terror laws. On Thursday, the Stockholm District Court sentenced a 41-year-old man to 4.5 years in prison for attempting to extort money for the PKK. 

In a show of solidarity with Sweden, President Joe Biden hosted its prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, at the White House on Wednesday. Alongside Kristersson, Biden said he “fully, fully, fully supports” Sweden’s NATO membership and was “anxiously looking forward” to the Nordic country’s inclusion in the alliance. 

“We believe [it] is ready to join NATO now,” the National Security Council’s senior director for Europe Amanda Sloat told reporters Friday. “We have certainly continued to make that position clear to our Turkish counterparts.”

Following a stop in London, Biden will travel to Vilnius for the July 11-12 NATO gathering, where he and Erdogan are expected to meet on the summit’s sidelines. From there, Biden will travel to Helsinki to meet with the leaders of NATO’s newest member state. 

A potential sale of $20 billion worth of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey has stalled in Congress, where lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are demanding Ankara first greenlight NATO enlargement. As recently as this week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Punchbowl News that he would not offer his support for the sale unless Turkey ratified Sweden’s NATO accession. Other lawmakers, notably Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), have cited other concerns, including Ankara’s human rights record and its conduct in Syria.