Turkey: Erdogan to discuss NATO bid with Sweden’s new leader

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he has agreed to meet with Sweden’s new prime minister in Ankara to discuss the Scandinavian country’s bid to join NATO. He described the visit as an opportunity to test Stockholm’s “sincerity” in meeting Turkey’s conditions for membership. In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sweden abandoned a longstanding policy of military nonalignment and applied for NATO membership together with neighboring Finland. Turkey, already a member of the military alliance, threatened to block the process. Erdogan’s government wants Sweden to crack down on Kurdish groups that Turkey considers to be national security threats. Sweden’s foreign minister on Friday described a possible meeting between the Turkish and Swedish leaders as “positive.”