Joe Biden
President Joe Biden will host Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and President Sauli Niinistö of Finland at the White House for a Thursday meeting amid pressure to join NATO following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The White House said
it would discuss the two countries' requests to join the alliance, as well as security in Europe in general. The demands of long-standing neutral countries to join NATO were celebrated in the alliance as a rebuke to Russia after it invades Ukraine, even though Turkey had expressed reservations.
Turkish Foreign
Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoglu told reporters in Berlin that Finland and Sweden had also imposed bans on the sale of Turkish defenses that were "unacceptable."
But NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said his understanding was that Turkey wanted to address concerns about Finland and Sweden, but did not intend to block its membership.
However, the escalation of Turkish complaints has raised concerns in Washington and Brussels that other NATO members could also use the accession process as a way to obtain concessions from the Allies, complicating and delaying accession. Foreign Minister Antony Blinken, who speaks with Chavushoglu, will resign again at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Wednesday. He expressed optimism that all NATO members would support the offers of Finland and Sweden.
White House
spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday that the administration was "very convinced" that an agreement would be reached on joining the two countries in the alliance.
A White House meeting between Biden and the two leaders is scheduled for Thursday before Biden leaves Washington for a four-day trip to South Korea and Japan.
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