US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Sweden to meet Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Secretary of State Tobias Billström. He then travels to Norway and Finland. The major NATO exercise in Scandinavia appears to foreign commentator Bernard Hammelburg as an occasion rather than the real reason for Blinken’s visit.
If the US wanted to go to Scandinavia just for the NATO exercise, it would send the defense minister or a senior soldier, Hammelburg says. “The fact that the United States is sending the foreign minister has to do with the fact that there is a political issue in Scandinavia, namely Sweden joining NATO.” The hope of the Americans is that Blinken can increase the pressure on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with visits, according to Hammelburg, the reasoning goes at the moment.
Erdogan is not expected to immediately respond to this. The Turkish president again won elections in his country last weekend and a major issue during his election campaign was Sweden’s accession to NATO. This shouldn’t continue. “Americans’ reasoning is that he doesn’t need that point now since the election is over and so now is the time to talk to him,” says Hammelburg.
Hopeful thinking
According to the foreign commentator, we must take into account that all this can also be Western and American wishful thinking. “It would be good for peace in Europe if Turkey gave up resistance, and for the Hungarians to do the same, so that Sweden could just join.” There will be a NATO summit in Lithuania in July. “Then the bullet would have to go through the church, just to use the wrong metaphor.”
Source: BNR
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