US 'gratified' with Turkish decision on Sweden's NATO admission: State Dept.

WASHINGTON

US is "gratified" with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's decision to support Sweden's accession into NATO, State Department said on Wednesday.

Speaking at his press briefing, Spokesman Matthew Miller said the US sees Türkiye "as an important NATO ally" and "that has been clear from the beginning."

"Obviously, we've had differences with Turkey over specific matters. We have differences with most of our allies over specific matters and we deal with those differences constructively or at least we attempt to," Miller said.

"Certainly, as the President (Joe Biden) said, we welcome Turkey's decision to support Sweden's accession into NATO. It's something that we had encouraged them to do, and we are gratified that the President (Erdogan) made that decision," he added.

Erdogan agreed to send Sweden's NATO accession protocol to parliament following a trilateral meeting with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Vilnius, Lithuania on Monday.

In addition, Erdogan held a bilateral meeting with Biden on the sidelines of the NATO summit, during which he hailed the start of a “new process” with Washington.

The meeting marked the culmination of a flurry of high-level diplomatic engagements between Türkiye and the US in the run-up to the Vilnius summit, including three phone calls between Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in five days, and Sunday’s phone call between Erdogan and Biden.

In a video he posted on Twitter, Biden said Wednesday that Türkiye reached a "historic agreement" on the admission of Sweden into NATO.

"President Erdoğan, thank you for your courage, leadership, and diplomacy. This summit reaffirms our commitment to the NATO defense, and I hope we can continue to make it even stronger," he added.