Sweden and Türkiye will meet "soon" to discuss Stockholm's delayed bid to join NATO, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said Monday after elections wrapped up in Ankara.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom initially told broadcaster SVT on Monday he would meet his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Thursday at a gathering of NATO foreign ministers in Oslo.
"But we have been informed that Türkiye’s foreign minister is not coming, so there won't be any meeting there," a spokesperson for Billstrom said, adding that the meeting would nevertheless take place "soon."
Discussions between the two countries over NATO ground to a halt during the election.
"I look forward to being able to shift into a higher gear and speed things up now we know what the result is," Billstrom said.
Billstrom reiterated that the government hoped Sweden could become NATO's 32nd member state by the time of the alliance's summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on July 11-12.
In a historic turnaround, Sweden and Finland abandoned their longstanding policies of military non-alliance and applied to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Last June, Türkiye and the two Nordic countries signed a memorandum to address Ankara’s legitimate security concerns, paving the way for their eventual membership in the alliance.
But recent provocative demonstrations by terrorist sympathizers and Islamophobic figures in Stockholm have led Turkish leaders to question Sweden’s commitment to take the steps necessary for NATO membership.
Ankara ratified Finland's membership in March, enabling it to become a full member of the defense alliance this week.
Ankara has previously said Sweden in particular must first take a clearer stance against terrorists. Türkiye has frequently voiced that it does not oppose NATO enlargement, but rather criticizes Stockholm for not taking action against elements that are posing a security threat to Ankara.
The burning of Islam's holy book outside Türkiye’s Embassy in Stockholm in January sparked anger in the Muslim world, leading to weeks of protests, calls for a boycott of Swedish goods and holding up Sweden's NATO membership bid.
