Biden sends clear message to Turkey and Hungary

Sitting in the Oval Office with the Swedish Prime Minister, Biden said that he was

anxiously looking forward to your membership.

Biden added that Sweden is a capable and committed partner.

The bottom line is Sweden is going to make our alliance stronger,

he stressed.

Kristersson thanked the US President for his invitation and for his support for his country's membership of NATO.

We also believe that there are things we can contribute,

the Swedish PM said.

Sweden, together with Finland, applied for NATO membership last year, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Nordic state would end more than two centuries of military neutrality with this.

But Turkey vetoed the country's admission, saying Stockholm was supporting Kurdish terrorists. Meanwhile, Sweden has complied with Turkish requests, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan still refuses to vote in favour of Swedish membership.

Besides Turkey, only Hungary has not ratified Sweden's accession to NATO.

The endorsement of Sweden by Biden, who heads NATO's leading military power, sends a clear message to Turkey and Hungary.

Representatives of Sweden, Turkey and NATO are meeting in Brussels on Thursday to try to find a solution before the NATO summit on 11 and 12 July.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said earlier (in late May) that political relations between Hungary and Sweden must improve before the Nordic state’s bid for NATO membership is approved.

The political relations between Hungary and Sweden are awfully wrong. We don’t want to import conflicts into NATO,

he said.

Hungary's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjártó announced on Tuesday that he is in contact with his Turkish counterpart on the ratification of Sweden's NATO membership, assuring that if Turkey changes its position on the issue, Hungary will not obstruct the process.

This week was the last chance before autumn to vote on Sweden's accession to NATO, but the issue was left out of the agenda of any of the three meetings (Monday, Tuesday, Friday). House Speaker László Kövér rejected proposals by opposition parties to add the final vote on the matter to the agenda.

Cover photo: US President Joe Biden and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson hold a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on 5 July 2023. MTI/AP/Evan Vucci