US Official Announced: Hakan Fidan Membership Statement

As the international public waited for Turkey and Hungary to approve Sweden’s membership in NATO, a senior American official made a notable statement.

While the war between Russia and Ukraine continues, the accession process of Sweden, which has applied to become a member of NATO along with Finland, has not yet been approved. While a country must receive approval from all its members to become a NATO member, only Turkey and Hungary have not approved it so far.

Fidan met yesterday with his American counterpart, Antony Blinken.

It was revealed that Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who met with his NATO member counterparts yesterday, gave information to US officials about Sweden’s membership. Speaking to the British news agency Reuters, a senior US State Department official quoted Fidan as saying that he worked very hard to approve Sweden’s membership.

The official, who did not reveal his name, announced that after the ministerial meeting held yesterday in Brussels, Fidan stated that Sweden’s accession could be approved at the end of this year.

The official said that during talks on Tuesday, Fidan told his NATO counterparts that he was working “very hard” to resolve the issue.

Asked if Fidan could give a timeline on when the approval process would be completed, the official said: “He said a few weeks.”

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO in May last year, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan opposed both requests at the time, citing Scandinavian countries’ protection of people Turkey considers terrorists and defense trade embargoes. Ankara approved Finland’s offer in April, but kept Sweden waiting. Türkiye had demanded that Sweden work harder in cooperation with terrorism.