Biden will host Sweden’s prime minister on the White House because the Nordic nation seeks to affix NATO

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden will host Sweden’s prime minister on the White House on Wednesday in a present of solidarity because the United States presses for the Nordic nation’s entry into NATO, a bid stalled by objections from two members of the Western army alliance.

Biden and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson plan to “review our growing security cooperation and reaffirm their view that Sweden should join NATO as soon as possible,” the White House mentioned an announcement Saturday. The leaders additionally will talk about the conflict in Ukraine and China.

Sweden and neighbor Finland dropped their long-standing army neutrality after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and utilized for NATO membership, searching for safety below the group’s safety umbrella.

Finland, which shares an 832-mile (1,340 kilometer) border with Russia, joined NATO in April. Sweden, which has prevented army alliances for greater than 200 years, has seen its ascension delayed by Turkey and Hungary; NATO requires the unanimous approval of all members to develop.

NATO had hoped the street to Sweden’s membership could be smoothed out earlier than the alliance’s summit July 11-12 in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Sweden’s entry could be a extremely symbolic second and the most recent indication of how Russia’s conflict is driving international locations to affix the alliance.

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has resisted, along with his authorities accusing Sweden of being too lenient towards teams that it says pose a safety menace, together with militant Kurdish organizations and folks related to a 2016 coup try in Turkey.

This previous week, he condemned Sweden over a Quran-burning protest. Swedish police allowed the protest exterior a mosque in central Stockholm, citing freedom of speech after a courtroom overturned a ban on an identical Quran-burning.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg mentioned he would collect senior officers from Turkey, Sweden and Finland this coming Thursday to attempt to overcome Turkey’s objections.

Hungary additionally has but to ratify Sweden’s bid. Hungarian lawmakers mentioned a long-delayed parliamentary vote on that may not wouldn’t occur till the autumn legislative session.