Biden hails Turkey's backing of Sweden's NATO admission at meeting with Erdoğan

Photo: Joe Biden/Twitter

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During a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday on the sidelines of a NATO leaders summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, US President Joe Biden expressed his appreciation for Turkey's support in advancing Sweden's NATO membership.

Biden thanked Erdoğan for his "diplomacy and leadership" regarding Sweden and described the NATO Summit as "historic." He reiterated their commitment to strengthening NATO's defense.

Biden also thanked Erdoğan for his well wishes for the upcoming 2024 presidential elections in the United States. "I am looking forward to meeting with you within the next five years," he said.

After the meeting that took about one hour and 15 minutes, the US president tweeted, "It was great sitting down with President Erdoğan once again today in Lithuania for a NATO Summit made even more historic by Türkiye's agreement on the admission of Sweden."

"This is warm-up"

For his part, Erdoğan expressed his belief that it is now time for consultations at the level of heads of state within the "strategic mechanism" on security cooperation between Ankara and Washington.

"I consider this meeting within the NATO framework as the first step of this process," he said. "Our previous meetings were like warm-up sessions, but now we are initiating a new process."

After over a year of consultations with Stockholm and NATO, President Erdoğan pledged on Monday to support Sweden's application for NATO membership. (NT/VK)