Turkish president, Swedish PM, NATO Sec.-Gen. meeting in Vilnius

The meeting of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on the issue of the kingdom’s joining the alliance has kicked off in Vilnius, Report informs referring to TRT TV channel from the capital of Lithuania.

The meeting is attended by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who was the initiator of the negotiations before the summit of the North Atlantic Alliance.

The meeting is held behind closed doors to the press.

Before flying to the NATO summit, Erdogan said that Türkiye would support Sweden’s bid to join the alliance in exchange for lifting barriers to Ankara’s EU membership. Earlier, the Turkish authorities stated that the main condition for this should be the fulfillment by Sweden of the obligations of the Madrid Memorandum on Combating Terrorism. It was signed in June 2022 on the sidelines of the NATO summit.