NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Thursday that he will soon travel to Turkey to discuss Sweden’s NATO membership, in an effort to complete a process that has been stalled due to objections from member countries Turkey and Hungary.
Speaking during a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Oslo, Stoltenberg said he had spoken earlier this week to Tayyip Erdogan, who at the weekend won re-election as Turkey’s president.
Some NATO foreign ministers voiced hope that now that the Turkish elections were completed and Erdogan had won re-election as president, Ankara would drop its opposition to Stockholm’s application to join the military alliance.
Turkey ratified Finland’s NATO accession in March, but says Sweden harbors members of militant groups it considers terrorists.
Timing-wise, several foreign ministers expressed confidence Sweden could become a member before, or at, a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July.
Sweden, invited to Oslo, stressed again it had fulfilled all the conditions set to become a member of the military alliance.
