ANKARA — With less than a month to go before NATO’s historic leaders summit in Lithuania in early July, Ankara remains intransigent on Sweden’s pending membership bid, following a nearly three-hour meeting in the Turkish capital on Wednesday between officials of Turkey, Sweden and NATO.
Turkey announced that the two countries agreed to continue talks on Stockholm's pending accession to the alliance as the latest round of negotiations ended without a breakthrough.
Speaking after the meeting, NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg, in turn, struck a relatively optimistic tone, saying that “some progress” had been achieved. “We will continue to work and we all will welcome Sweden as a full member as soon as possible,” he said, adding that Sweden could still join the alliance before the bloc’s Vilnius summit on July 11-12. Stoltenberg discussed Sweden's pending membership with US President Joe Biden on Tuesday.
Along with NATO and Stockholm, Washington has also adamantly stressed its expectation for Sweden’s accession to be finalized before the Vilnius summit in four weeks. US NATO envoy Julianne Smith said on Wednesday, “Watching what Sweden in particular has done over the last year is very encouraging to us. … Again, our anticipation is that this is within reach by Vilnius.”
