Turkish leaders Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Swedish Ulf Kristersson meet in Vilnius on Monday for final negotiations over Sweden’s NATO membership, on the eve of the Alliance’s annual summit. The meeting, organized by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, should, he hopes, make it possible to lift Ankara’s veto which has been blocking Stockholm’s entry into the Atlantic Alliance since May 2022.
Jens Stoltenberg, who wants the thirty-one member states of the organization to offer a united front against Russia, judged Thursday “absolutely possible” to obtain “a positive decision” from Turkey in Lithuania. President Erdogan for his part promised on Friday to take “the best decision, whatever it is”, implying that all options are on the table.
