Biden says Sweden will join NATO “soon”

The President of the United States, Joe Biden, said this Thursday (June 1, 2023) that Sweden will join NATO “shortly”. The speech was during his speech at the graduation ceremony at the US Air Force Academy. Turkey is against the entry of the Nordic country into the alliance. The information is from Reuters.

During the event that took place in the state of Colorado, Biden said that NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is stronger, despite attempts by Russian President Vladimir Putin to break the alliance with his invasion of Ukraine. He further stated that the alliance was strengthened by the recent admission of Finland and, “and soon, from Sweden”.

“It will happen, I promise you”, he said. NATO’s 2023 annual summit will be in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July.

On May 3, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Turkey to immediately finalize Sweden’s accession to NATO, saying the Nordic country has already taken significant steps to deal with objections to its membership raised by the country led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Sweden and Finland have applied for NATO membership in 2023. Proposals for membership must be approved by all members of the group, but Turkey and Hungary have yet to approve Sweden’s candidacy.

The Turkish government accepted Finland’s membership in the alliance in March, but says Sweden harbors members of militant groups it considers terrorists.

2ª (May 29), Biden these who asked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to review his position regarding Sweden’s accession to NATO. The American called to congratulate the Turkish man on his re-election on Sunday (28.May).

According to Biden, Erdogan would have taken advantage of the contact to reinforce his interest in buying US F-16 fighters. Because of Sweden’s refusal, the sale of US$ 20 billion in fighter jets to Turkey was stopped by the US Congress.