Vilnius: On Tuesday, US Vice President Joe Biden expressed his gratitude to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for having the "courage" to abandon his opposition to Sweden's NATO membership.

Biden celebrated the successful conclusion of a significant diplomatic effort to persuade Erdogan to stop obstructing Sweden's application during a meeting at the NATO summit in Vilnius.

"I want to express my gratitude for your goodwill and bravery in tackling that. Biden said to Erdogan, "And I want to thank you for your leadership.
Erdogan's obstruction of Sweden, which needed the unanimous consent of all NATO members to complete its entry bid into the alliance, which was launched along with Finland in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, had been causing increasing frustration in Western capitals.

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On Sunday, Biden spoke with Erdogan for nearly an hour from Air Force One in an effort to resolve the impasse and avert a humiliating flop at the Vilnius summit. On the eve of the NATO meeting, Erdogan abruptly abandoned his opposition.

Erdogan insisted for months that Sweden crack down on members of Kurdish movements that were outlawed in Turkey; according to the Swedish government, this has now happened.

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But rumours about what additional concessions Turkiye obtained to grant its approval grew.

Erdogan had abruptly insisted that Sweden's acceptance into NATO be contingent upon Turkey's ability to restart its stalled membership negotiations with the European Union.

Following the decision regarding Sweden, Turkiye's long-standing demand for the purchase of contemporary US F-16 fighter jets appeared to gain momentum.

Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security advisor, emphasised on Tuesday that the US president has "been clear and unequivocal for months that he's supported the transfer of F-16s," seeing this as being in NATO's best interests.

In his public and private comments over the past few months, he hasn't added any qualifiers or limitations to that. He also plans to proceed with that transfer after consulting with Congress.

The White House is currently "actively engaging" with Congress, where there has been significant opposition to approving the sale, a US official told AFP.

"We will work with the Congress on the appropriate timing for getting" the warplanes to Turkiye, Sullivan said. However, he was unable to "speculate on the precise day it's going to happen."

Ulf Kristersson, the prime minister of Sweden, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg were heavily involved in the negotiations with Erdogan, but Sullivan emphasised "significant recent" US involvement.

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Regarding Erdogan's attempt to tie Turkey's desire to join the EU to the Swedish-NATO dispute, Sullivan claimed that Biden has "long" supported Turkey's membership in the EU.

That would necessitate, though, "discussions of the necessary reforms and steps relative to democratic resilience that every prospective applicant to the European Union goes through."

So far as we're concerned, these problems are unrelated, he declared.