Rebutting Turkey, Biden lauds NATO bids of Sweden, Finland
The flag of Sweden[MGN]
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden is forcefully supporting the applications of Finland and Sweden to join NATO despite objections from Turkey.
Biden welcomed Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and President Sauli Niinistö of Finland to the White House Thursday.
Russia’s war on Ukraine has led the two formerly militarily non-aligned countries to seek to join the 30-member NATO military bloc.
Biden insists the two candidate countries “meet every NATO requirement and then some.”
But unanimous approval is necessary, and Turkey’s president has pledged to block the two countries’ NATO membership, accusing them of supporting Kurdish activists that Turkey calls terrorists.