SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
NATO chief to visit Turkey for Erdogan inauguration
Brussels, June 2 (AFP) Jun 02, 2023
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg will visit Turkey at the weekend to attend the inauguration of re-elected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and hold talks with him, the alliance said Friday.

The trip comes as pressure builds on Erdogan to drop his opposition to Sweden joining NATO.

Stoltenberg on Thursday said during a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Norway that he would soon visit Ankara to work towards Sweden joining "as early as possible", after speaking with Erdogan by phone earlier this week.

The NATO statement said Stoltenberg would attend Erdogan's inauguration on Saturday. The Turkish president was last week re-elected to serve another five-year term.

The statement said the visit would extend into Sunday and Stoltenberg would "have bilateral meetings with President Erdogan and with senior Turkish officials".

NATO member Turkey has dragged its feet over admitting Sweden to the military alliance. It and Hungary are the only two member countries yet to ratify Sweden's membership bid.

Finland formally joined the alliance in April.

Erdogan has accused Sweden of being a haven for "terrorists", especially members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom on Thursday said his country has fulfilled all its commitments to join, and "it is time for Turkey and Hungary to start the ratification of the Swedish membership to NATO".

Many of the ministers who attended the Oslo meeting said they wanted to see Sweden join before a NATO summit in Lithuania's capital Vilnius on July 11-12.

Stoltenberg has said that goal is "absolutely possible".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whose country is the dominant member of NATO, also said on Thursday that "we fully anticipate" Sweden joining by the Vilnius summit.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
AI systems proposed to boost launch cadence reliability and traffic management
China debuts Long March 12A reusable rocket in Jiuquan test flight
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4750-4762: See You on the Other Side of the Sun

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Redesigned carbon framework boosts battery safety and power
Molecular catalyst switches between hydrogen and oxygen production
Project Pele microreactor reaches key milestone with first TRISO fuel delivery

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
SDA expands Tracking Layer satellite awards and related missile defense contracts
Space Systems Command activates System Delta 80 for assured space access
Rheinmetall ICEYE Space Solutions to provide SAR reconnaissance data to German military

24/7 News Coverage
OPERA satellite data sharpens US crop and water management
Alen Space begins SATMAR satellite validation over Bay of Algeciras
Deep Arctic gas hydrate mounds host ultra deep cold seep ecosystem



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.