VILNIUS: US President Joe Biden thanked his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday for his 鈥渃ourage鈥� in dropping opposition to Sweden鈥檚 entry to NATO.
At a meeting during the NATO summit in Vilnius, Biden celebrated the conclusion of a major diplomatic push to get Erdogan to stop blocking Sweden鈥檚 application.
鈥淚 want to thank you for your diplomacy and your courage to take that on. And I want to thank you for your leadership,鈥� Biden told Erdogan.
Frustration had been mounting in Western capitals at Erdogan鈥檚 obstruction of Sweden, which required unanimous approval from NATO members in order to complete its entry bid into the alliance, launched, along with Finland, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year.
Biden spoke with Erdogan from Air Force One for nearly an hour on Sunday in a bid to break the impasse and avoid an embarrassing failure at the Vilnius summit. Erdogan abruptly dropped his opposition late Monday on the eve of the NATO get-together.
For months, Erdogan insisted on a crackdown in Sweden against members of Kurdish movements outlawed in Turkiye, something the Swedish government says it has now done.
But speculation mounted over what other concessions Turkiye extracted to give its green light.
Erdogan had demanded at the last minute that approval for Sweden in NATO would depend on Turkiye being able to renew stalled membership talks with the European Union.
Another long-standing demand from Turkiye for the purchase of modern US F-16 fighter jets seemed to get a boost in the wake of the decision on Sweden.
Biden鈥檚 national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, stressed Tuesday that the US president has 鈥渂een clear and unequivocal for months that he鈥檚 supported the transfer of F-16s,鈥� seeing this as in the interests of NATO.
鈥淗e has placed no caveats or conditions on that in his public and private comments over the past few months. And he intends to move forward with that transfer in consultation with Congress.鈥�
A US official told AFP that the White House is now 鈥渁ctively engaging鈥� with Congress, where there has been significant opposition to allowing the sale.
Sullivan said 鈥渨e will work with the Congress on the appropriate timing for getting鈥� the warplanes to Turkiye. But he could not 鈥渟peculate on the precise day it鈥檚 going to happen.鈥�
Although NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Sweden鈥檚 Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson were heavily engaged in the negotiations with Erdogan, Sullivan stressed 鈥渟ignificant recent鈥� US involvement.
As for the effort by Erdogan to link Turkiye鈥檚 EU aspirations with the Swedish-NATO question, Sullivan said Biden has 鈥渓ong鈥� supported Turkiye entering the European Union.
However, that would take 鈥渄iscussions of the necessary reforms and steps relative to democratic resilience that every prospective applicant to the European Union goes through.鈥�
鈥淪o, as far as we鈥檙e concerned, these issues are not connected,鈥� he said.