Joe Biden throws weight behind Sweden’s Nato bid as summit nears

Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson secured a show of support from US President Joe Biden for his country’s stalled bid to join Nato. The two leaders met on Wednesday to sketch a last-ditch attempt at clearing the path for the Nordic nation’s accession ahead of the alliance’s summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius next week. The bid is being held up by Turkey, which accuses Sweden of not clamping down hard enough on groups that the Turkish government views as terrorists. “The United States fully, fully, fully supports Sweden’s membership in Nato,” Biden said, reiterating a long-held stance. “And the bottom line is simple: Sweden is going to make our alliance stronger and has the same value set that we have in Nato. And we’re anxiously looking forward to your membership.” Turkey has held off on ratifying Sweden’s application for more than a year, with Hungary in tow. Allies, including the US, have sought to put pressure on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to approve the Nordic nation’s entry. Speaking after his meeting with Biden, Kristersson said they “both realise that the Vilnius summit in a week is a natural point in time to finish the process, but we also both ascertain that only Turkey can make Turkish decisions.” Nato completes largest ever European air drill in show of force “We have worked hard for this for a long time,” he told reporters. “This meeting was an important part of that.” A key point of leverage for the US could be a Turkish bid to purchase American-made F-16 fighter jets, a transaction that requires congressional approval. But on Wednesday Turkish official rebuffed linking the two issues. Sweden argues that it has fulfilled all obligations under an agreement hammered out a year ago at the alliance’s summit in Madrid. The country also meets the membership criteria set out by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Earlier this week, Erdogan again lashed out at Sweden for allowing sympathisers of the terrorist-designated Kurdish PKK group to display the organisation’s symbols at protests in Stockholm, and for allowing a public burning of the Koran near the main mosque in the centre of the Swedish capital. “These are hate crimes that feed on hostility to Islam,” Erdogan said on Monday. “It is much worse that this hate crime can be committed under police protection.” The comments appeared to put a damper on any hopes of a breakthrough in the week before leaders of Nato countries and Sweden gather for the high-stakes meeting in Vilnius. Sweden’s foreign minister Tobias Billstrom, who travelled with Kristersson to Washington, will meet his Turkish and Finnish counterparts at Nato’s headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, seeking to make progress ahead of the July 11-12 summit. Kristersson rejected throwing in the towel, saying “nothing has been determined, in either direction”. “We are approaching the Vilnius summit and I feel strengthened by the fact that all allies feel that this is a natural point in time to make the necessary decisions,” he told reporters in Washington on Wednesday. Russian ‘spy’ whale surfaces in Sweden While Turkey in March approved the bid by fellow applicant Finland, its refusal to let neighbouring Sweden join may complicate Nato’s plans to defend its expanded eastern border with Russia and stymie ambitions of boosting the alliance’s presence in the Arctic region. For Finland, it means uncertainty over supply routes and lack of depth to its defences. For Sweden, the delay, while manageable for now, will start to get problematic if it means the Nordic nation is left out of Nato’s defence planning for an extended period of time, according to Micael Byden, commander in chief of Sweden’s Armed Forces. “Just look at the map – not being able to incorporate Sweden’s territory and its armed forces in concrete military plans will make it harder for Nato, and we would not be able to access what we need in terms of plans, management and cryptographic systems,” Byden said in an interview last week on the Swedish island of Gotland. “We would be on the sideline, and that makes things difficult.”

Joe Biden throws weight behind Sweden’s Nato bid as summit nears

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Turkey and Hungary continue to stall on ratifying Sweden’s entry into Nato Nato leaders are set to gather in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius next week

Turkey and Hungary continue to stall on ratifying Sweden’s entry into Nato

Nato leaders are set to gather in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius next week