Turkish top diplomat meets American, NATO counterparts in London

LONDON

Türkiye’s new Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held his first face-to-face meetings with his counterparts from prominent NATO countries, including the United States, Germany and Italy, with the Swedish accession to the alliance as the top issue of the agenda.

Fidan attended the 2023 Ukraine Recovery Conference hosted by the British government on June 21 and 22. It was his first multilateral meeting since he was appointed as the foreign minister in early June. He was the former chief of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

On the sidelines of the conference, Fidan held bilateral meetings with a number of colleagues, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The first meeting of the two men was expected to focus on the Swedish bid to join NATO.

Apart from Türkiye and Hungary, all the allies have already approved the Nordic state’s application and are pressing on these two countries to do it before the NATO leaders’ summit to be held on July 11 and 12 in Vilnius.

Türkiye had approved Finland but underlined that Sweden has to take more concrete actions in the fight against terrorism. Sweden says it fulfilled the requirements outlined in the trilateral agreement signed between Türkiye, Sweden and Finland in mid-2022.

Fidan and Blinken are also expected to discuss a number of bilateral matters, particularly Türkiye’s demand of supplying 40 new F-16s. Although the administration endorses the sale, it needs to get the consent of the American Congress, which currently has a strong anti-Türkiye feeling. Washington believes Türkiye’s greenlight to Sweden will overcome the difficulties at the Congress.

Fidan also met German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg. He was also scheduled to meet British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman.