Biden to host Sweden’s PM on July 5 to debate NATO bid, Ukraine

The 2 leaders “will overview our rising safety cooperation and reaffirm their view that Sweden ought to be a part of NATO as quickly as attainable,” the White Home stated in a press release in regards to the July 5 assembly.

Sweden requested to hitch NATO in Might 2022, three months after Russia invaded Ukraine, however its membership bid, which have to be ratified by all 31 member states, has been blocked by Turkey and Hungary.

For all the most recent headlines, observe our Google Information channel on-line or by way of the app.

Western officers had hoped to formally welcome Sweden into the bloc by the point a NATO summit is held in Lithuania on July 11-12.

However earlier this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Sweden for permitting a protest throughout which a person burned pages from the Quran, additional clouding the Nordic nation’s probabilities of rapidly becoming a member of the army alliance.

“I’m delighted that President Biden is inviting us to a gathering subsequent week, earlier than the NATO summit in Vilnius the next week,” Kristersson stated in a press release. “The main target of the go to will probably be on Sweden’s NATO accession.”

On the White Home on Wednesday, Biden and Kristersson can even “talk about our shared dedication to supporting Ukraine within the face of Russia’s brutal struggle of aggression,” the White Home stated.

They can even discuss transatlantic coordination on China, local weather change and rising applied sciences.

Learn extra: