NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg will visit Türkiye on Nov. 4 for talks on Finland and Sweden's nearly completed process to join the military alliance, a Turkish official told AFP on Friday.
Stoltenberg is due to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has warned his country will not give the nod to the two countries' memberships until "the promises they made were kept."
Erdoğan has accused Finland and Sweden in particular of providing shelter to outlawed PKK-linked militants deemed "terrorists" by Ankara.
In June, Türkiye, Sweden and Finland struck a deal that included provisions on extraditions and sharing of information.
The two Nordic nations earlier this year ditched their longstanding policies of non-alignment, asking to join NATO because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and how it reshaped Europe's security.
Stoltenberg on Wednesday announced plans to visit Türkiye while praising the "close contact" Stockholm and Helsinki now had with Ankara "at all levels."
He said: "I will go to ... Istanbul to meet with President Erdoğan in the near future myself."
Erdoğan has also accepted a request from Sweden's new Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to visit Türkiye as Stockholm struggles to overcome Ankara's blocking of its NATO bid.
The Turkish official, who wished to remain anonymous, said the visit was likely to take place on Nov. 8.
A spokesperson for Kristersson could not confirm the date. "We're working on it," she said.
Erdoğan said during a telephone call with the Swedish premier this week that Türkiye "stands ready to advance the bilateral relations with the Swedish government in all areas."
Sweden is fully committed to meeting the terms of the tripartite deal struck in Madrid aimed at overcoming Türkiye's objections to Stockholm's bid to join the NATO alliance along with Finland, Kristersson also said on Friday.
"We have to do our part of it, and we are doing our part of it," Kristersson told reporters after meeting his Finnish counterpart in Helsinki.
"We are working very hard to fulfill what Sweden is supposed to do and we will report in detail what we have achieved."
