Upon leaving his meeting with King Philip VI at the Royal Palace, Biden received a call from the President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, and the Prime Minister of Sweden, Magdalena Andersson. They told him what they had agreed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. And he gave the signature.
In the six and a half months since Biden made his first phone call to Niinistö suggesting that he join NATO, the security situation in Europe has been drastically altered. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has launched long-held assumptions about the security of nations along its borders. And countries that for decades had maintained a strict policy of neutrality are suddenly reconsidering their position.
Efforts to incorporate Finland and Sweden into NATO have been both the work of months of constant diplomacy and, over the past few days, an intense burst of phone calls and meetings between senior officials.
The process was described by senior US and European officials.
Looking ahead to this week’s summit, few of these officials believed that the problems blocking the accession of the two Scandinavian countries would be resolved when the leaders left Madrid. Instead, they had resigned themselves to moving forward on an issue they believed could be extended for more months.
Instead, a marathon set of meetings, a strategically scheduled phone call from Biden to Erdoğan and a last-minute closure resulted in the road being opened for newer NATO members. In the end, Biden hung the prospect of a formal meeting with Erdogan on the sidelines of this week’s summit as he pushed for the plan to cross the finish line.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is clear why Finland and Sweden would consider abandoning their long-standing security positions to join NATO. But in December, before Russian tanks began entering Ukraine, the outlook was more far-fetched.
However, on December 13, Biden made a phone call to Niinistö to raise the idea. Russian President Vladimir Putin had been concentrating troops and equipment along Ukraine’s borders. And he was clear that the security situation in Europe was about to change drastically.
In March, after the invasion began, Biden invited Niinistö to the White House for talks. Sitting in the oval office and explaining the details of the proposal, the two men picked up the phone and called Andersson in Sweden, where it was after dark, to fill it out.
In May, the two countries formally submitted their applications to join the NATO alliance. The next day, they were in the White House Rose Garden with Biden marking a historic milestone.
“After 200 years of non-military alignment, Sweden has chosen a new path,” Andersson said.
“Finland has made its decision after a quick but very thorough process,” Niinistö added.
Clouding the Rose Garden celebrations, however, meant strong resistance from Turkey to add new members to the alliance. For a long time, NATO’s most defiant member, Erdoğan, accused nations of hosting members of the militant separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, also known as the PKK, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization.
He also wanted countries to get rid of the embargo on arms sales to Turkey that was launched after Turkey’s military intervention in northern Syria in 2019.
The three countries continued to talk. But in a conscious decision, Biden tried to keep his distance and avoid putting the United States in the middle. Instead, Biden “chose his moments selectively to try to help put his thumb on the scales to get to the finish line,” according to a senior administration official.
“Americans don’t want to get in the middle of that because then the price goes up,” a European official said. “If the American (president) indicates in some way that this is this problem, (Erdoğan) will have a lot of other things he wants to ask for.”
Still, talks continued between the different parties. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with their Turkish counterparts. Finland and Sweden maintained their own talks with Turkey. And the conversations progressed.
As the Madrid summit approached, US and European officials became increasingly frustrated by Turkey’s resistance, which some believed was being done on purpose to extract concessions. Officials who once said in private that they expected the Madrid summit to act as a welcome party for the two newest members of the alliance came to believe that the outlook was unlikely.
“I’m not sitting here today suggesting that all problems will be solved by Madrid,” Sullivan said Monday, a day before Biden’s arrival in Madrid.
But as the summit approached, signs of progress emerged. And on Tuesday morning, Biden received a request from Niinistö and Andersson: It was the right time for him to make a call to Erdoğan.
Speaking from the Bavarian Alps, where he was attending the G7 summit, Biden encouraged the hitherto recalcitrant Turkish leader to “seize the moment and do it in Madrid,” the administration official said. And he told her that if an agreement could be reached before the summit began, it would set the stage for a formal bilateral meeting between the two men in Spain.
“It is Turkey’s standard operating procedure not to make concessions until the last possible moment. And this last possible moment is usually defined as a bilateral one with the US president,” the European official said.
The strategy proved effective. In the early evening, Niinistö, Andersson and Erdoğan announced that Turkey’s objections had been withdrawn and that Finland and Sweden’s applications to join NATO would go ahead. And Biden will formally meet with Erdogan on Wednesday.
Turkey said it “got what it wanted” in the deal, including co-operation on “the extradition of terrorist offenders.” The senior US administration official said there was “a lot of moving parts” and not a “word or phrase” that would prove the end point.
Erdogan’s long-standing complaints to the United States, including Washington’s refusal to sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey and its demand in the United States to extradite a cleric he accuses of cultivating a coup attempt state, remain unresolved, and are likely to arise in their meeting with Biden.
Whatever the dispute, however, the leaders framed the result as a triumph. And more than four months after the Russian war in Ukraine, NATO is ready to welcome two new members.
“Congratulations to Finland, Sweden and Turkey on the signing of a trilateral memorandum, a crucial step towards a NATO invitation to Finland and Sweden, which will strengthen our Alliance and strengthen our collective security, and a good way to start the Summit “. Biden wrote on Twitter.
The image was of their May meeting as they entered the Nibble.