Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, will visit Turkey on Saturday and Sunday. According to a statement issued by the NATO headquarters in Brussels, the visit schedule includes, on Saturday, June 3, Stoltenberg attending the inauguration ceremony of the President of the Republic of Turkey, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Ankara. The Secretary-General will also hold bilateral meetings with President Erdogan and with senior Turkish officials.
This comes after Jens Stoltenberg expressed his desire to activate dialogue again with Turkey regarding Sweden's membership in NATO, pointing out that he will visit Ankara to discuss this issue.
NATO wants Sweden to join its ranks by the time the alliance leaders meet in Lithuania on July 11-12, but Turkey and Hungary have not yet ratified the move.
All 31 NATO members must ratify a candidate country's membership in the alliance
The Turkish government accuses Sweden of being too soft on "terrorist organizations" and security threats, including Kurdish armed groups and people accused of being behind a failed coup attempt in 2016.
Hungary also delayed its approval, but did not announce the reasons for this.
"My message is that Sweden has met (the demands), and it is time to ratify (accession) Sweden," Stoltenberg told reporters Thursday, at the end of two days of informal talks between the coalition's foreign ministers to prepare for the summit in Vilnius.
Fearing being targeted by Moscow after last year's invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland abandoned military non-alignment in order to seek NATO protection. Finland became the 31st member of the coalition in April.
On Thursday, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said, "It is time for Turkey and Hungary to start ratifying Sweden's membership in NATO."