The US State Department said that Secretary Anthony Blinken told his Turkish counterpart in a phone call that Sweden was ready “now” to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
On Tuesday, the US Secretary of State urged Turkey to immediately complete the approval of Sweden’s application to join NATO, saying that the northern European country had already taken important steps to address Ankara’s objections to its membership request.
Blinken said that Washington continues to work to complete Sweden’s accession before the NATO summit in mid-July, which will bring together the heads of the alliance’s countries.
“We believe the time has come and there is no reason not to move forward,” he added. “Türkiye raised important and legitimate concerns. Sweden and Finland addressed these concerns,” he added.
And he added, “We look forward to completing this process in the coming weeks. We have no doubts that it can be completed, it should be done, and we expect it to be done.”
Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO last year, abandoning long-standing policies of non-alignment. The approval of all NATO members is a condition for a new member to join, but Turkey and Hungary have not yet agreed to Sweden’s request.
Türkiye ratified Finland’s request to join NATO in late March.
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