US President Joe Biden hailed his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Wednesday after Ankara struck a deal to greenlight Sweden’s NATO membership bid.
Biden mentioned the settlement for Sweden’s ascension, reached as NATO leaders convened in Lithuania’s capital, is “historic.”
“President Erdoğan, thank you for your courage, leadership, and diplomacy,” Biden mentioned in a tweet accompanying a video with footage from his bilateral assembly with the Turkish president on the sidelines of the summit in Vilnius.
“This summit reaffirms our commitment to the NATO defense, and I hope we can continue to make it even stronger,” he added.
Erdoğan agreed to ship Sweden’s NATO accession protocol to parliament following a trilateral assembly with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Vilnius, Lithuania on Monday.
“Türkiye has always supported NATO’s open-door policy. We have never prevented any country’s accession to the alliance for arbitrary reasons,” Erdoğan mentioned Wednesday because the two-day summit concluded.
Sweden and Finland determined to hunt NATO membership after Russia launched its battle on Ukraine in February 2022. While Finland gained membership this April, Türkiye mentioned Sweden would wish to handle its safety concerns-particularly over terrorism-before getting its inexperienced mild.
New members of NATO should get unanimous settlement from all the present members. Türkiye has been a NATO member for over 70 years, and boasts its second-largest military after the US.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
