Biden to meet with Erdoğan one-on-one at NATO summit

President Biden will meet Tuesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Europe.

The bilateral meeting will take place Tuesday evening in Vilnius, Lithuania, following a family photo with NATO heads of state and a meeting with all NATO heads of state as well as Sweden — which is seeking to enter the organization but faces a roadblock in Turkey’s leader.

The Biden administration has been pushing Turkey and Hungary to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO, and Erdoğan Monday linked Sweden’s entry to Turkey’s admittance to the European Union.  

Turkey has argued that Sweden’s government has been too lenient with the Kurdish Workers’ Party, which is deemed a terrorist group by the U.S., Turkey and the European Union. Meanwhile, Biden has repeatedly said he is committed to getting Sweden’s membership accepted.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that Biden and Erdoğan spoke ahead of the summit and “they agreed that the two of them would have the opportunity to sit down together in Vilnius.”

Biden arrived in Vilnius on Monday for the summit, which will largely be about Ukraine and the Russian invasion, Sweden’s entry into NATO, and the potential for a NATO membership for Ukraine.