MUSKO NAVAL BASE, Sweden — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday it's important that Turkey makes its decision to allow Sweden to join NATO “sooner versus later,” and said he “feels confident” it will happen before the alliance summit in July.
He declined, however, to say whether a recent U.S. deal to provide fighter jet upgrades to Turkey will provide enough incentive for Ankara to finally vote.
Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson said he is hopeful Sweden will gain admittance by summer, and his country feels more secure with the additional U.S. military exercises and involvement with his nation.
“We look forward to continuing to advocate for your swift admission to NATO, and we'll work hard to get that done before the summit,” Austin said. The NATO summit will be in Lithuania in early July.
Sweden's bid to join NATO remains stalled by opposition from Turkey and Hungary, even weeks after both nations finally approved Finland's application. Sweden and neighboring Finland jointly applied for NATO membership in May 2022, abandoning decades of non-alignment in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Austin and Jonson spoke to reporters near the docks at the Musko Naval Base. Austin is traveling on the HMS Harnosand, the Visby class corvette warship, between two islands in the southern Stockholm archipelago. The U. S. defense secretary watched as Swedish Marines on small combat boats…
