President Joe Biden has welcomed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's promise to step aside and permit Sweden to become a member of NATO.
"I stand ready to work with President Erdogan and Turkiye on enhancing defense and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area," Biden said in a statement Monday."I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister [ULF] Kristersson and Sweden as our 32nd NATO Ally.
Erdogan has been against Sweden joining NATO, alleging Sweden is sympathetic toward terrorists, especially the Kurdistan Workers' Party. To counter those concerns, Sweden amended its constitution, increased counter-terrorism cooperation against the PKK, and resumed arms exports to Turkey.Biden, who met Kristersson at the White House last week, also thanked Stoltenberg for his"steadfast" leadership during the yearlong negotiation on Monday.
“Turkey is looking for modernization of F-16 aircraft. And [Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos] Mitsotakis in Greece is also looking for some help,” Biden said. “And so, what I’m trying to, quite frankly, put together is a little bit of a consortium here, where we’re strengthening NATO in terms of military capacity of both Greece as well as Turkey, and allow Sweden to come in. But it’s in play. It’s not done.
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