US President Joe Biden, on Sunday, discussed Sweden's bid to join the military alliance NATO with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to a statement released by the latter's office. The phone call comes ahead of a summit of NATO leaders in Vilnius, Lithuania this week.
Erdogan, on Saturday, backed Ukraine's bid to join NATO. Biden, however, said there's no consensus between the members that Ukraine should join during Russia's invasion of the country. Erdogan in the meanwhile, opposes Sweden's membership to the alliance. Ankara accuses Stockholm of supporting Kurdish separatism. Sweden retaliated by saying that their country is not a safe haven for terrorism.
Turkey had accused Finland of doing the same, but, eventually gave the green light on Helsinki’s application and the country became a NATO member in April.
Biden will hold talks with NATO members on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will also be travelling to Vinius, where NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenburg said he would convene a meeting between Erdogan and Kristersoon.
The meeting of NATO leaders would also probably give Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy a sense of what will have to be done to gain NATO membership sometime in the future. In the call, Erdogan also brought up Turkey’s “desire to revive the EU membership process.” the two leaders also discussed the sale of U.S. F-16 fighter jets to Turkey in the call. The Turkish president said it is not correct to associate” Ankara’s request for F-16 aircraft with Sweden’s NATO membership bid.
Erdogan alleged that Kurdish militants are “roaming the streets” of Stockholm. Hungary's President Viktor Orban is supporting Erdogan's stance. Turkey has also complained about anti-Erdogan protests held in Sweden and demonstrations at which Qurans were burned, Washington Post reported.
