The White House has confirmed Mr Biden will meet Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan during the summit which begins later Tuesday and runs through Thursday, although it is unclear how far Mr Biden would go to get out of there. deadlock, three NATO diplomats said.
After landing in Madrid, Erdogan held more than two hours of talks with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
With negotiations set to continue into the evening, Turkey, Sweden and Finland have agreed to prepare a joint memorandum to address Ankara’s concerns over NATO membership for Helsinki and Stockholm, two Finnish newspapers, Helsingin, reported. Sanomat and Iltalehti.
Reuters could not immediately confirm this information.
Mr Biden, who also arrived in Madrid ahead of a dinner with his NATO counterparts, did not directly address the issue in his public comments with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and King Felipe of Spain.
But he stressed the unity of the alliance, saying NATO was “as galvanized as I believe it has ever been”.
Other allies, including France and Spain, have indirectly urged Turkey to yield. Speaking at the Group of Seven summit in Germany, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a message of “unity and strength” from NATO Madrid.
UNIT RESEARCH
Turkey’s unexpected objections to the two Nordic countries’ membership bid, which if successful would be the biggest change in European security in decades, threatens to overshadow a summit that is striving for unity while Russia is waging war in Ukraine.
“The general opinion is that the discussions have gone a bit better, which should mean that understanding has increased somewhat on both sides,” Finn Niinisto told reporters in Helsinki earlier on Tuesday.
Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde went further, telling the daily Svenska Dagbladet (SvD): “We are prepared for the possibility that something positive could happen today, but it could also take longer. time.”
Ankara’s main demands are that the Nordic countries stop supporting Kurdish militant groups present on their territory, and that they lift their bans on certain arms sales to Turkey.
These terms are now the subject of intense diplomacy, with NATO allies attempting to seal membership in record time to shore up their response to Russia, notably in the Baltic Sea, where Finland’s membership and of Sweden would give the alliance military superiority.
In the wider Nordic region, Norway, Denmark and the three Baltic states are already members of NATO. Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow describes as a “special operation”, helped reverse decades of Swedish opposition to NATO membership.
IF NOT NOW, IT WILL BE LATER
Before leaving for Madrid, Erdogan stood by his position, saying Turkey wanted actions, not words, to address its concerns, adding that he would also push Biden on the purchase of an F-16 fighter jet .
“We want results. We are tired of passing the ball to each other in midfield,” he said at Ankara airport.
Erdogan said he spoke to Biden on Tuesday morning ahead of the scheduled Madrid meeting and would explain Turkey’s position to allies at the summit and bilateral meetings.
He said he would discuss with Mr Biden the issue of Ankara’s purchase of S-400 air defense systems from Russia – which resulted in US sanctions – and a request to buy 40 F-jets. -16 and Washington modernization kits, as well as other bilateral issues.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said NATO needed to focus more on the “fight against terrorism in all its forms”, which is “also valid for candidate countries”.
Spaniard Sanchez, alongside Stoltenberg, said NATO had no choice but to admit Finland, which shares a 1,300 km (810 mile) border with Russia, and Sweden .
“We are convinced that if it’s not now, it will be later, but eventually they will join the Atlantic alliance,” Sanchez said.