US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on the sidelines of a Ukraine recovery conference that is scheduled to be held on June 21-22 in London, Al-Monitor has learned.
Diplomatic sources told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity the top agenda item would be Turkey’s continued objections to Sweden’s accession to the NATO alliance. The sources gave no further details and declined to comment on who had requested the meeting.
The encounter will mark the first since the former Turkish spy boss became foreign minister in the wake of the May parliamentary and presidential elections that saw President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party retain power. Blinken pressed Fidan on Sweden in a congratulatory call on June 8. The State Department declined to comment on the planned meeting between the top diplomats.
Fidan is seen as far more cerebral than his predecessor Mevlut Cavusoglu and is therefore expected to establish better rapport with Blinken. Fidan is also known to have Erdogan’s ear in a way that Cavusoglu never did, so he may be more effective. But whether he can change his boss's mind on key issues such as Sweden’s NATO membership or would even choose to try remains unknown. Turkey lifted its earlier objections to Finland’s entry after the latter ended a ban on military sales to Turkey. However, both Turkey and Hungary, whose right-wing leader Viktor Orban is accused of being soft on Russia, are blocking Sweden’s path.
