US President Joe Biden is looking forward to Sweden’s stalled Nato membership bid winning final approval, he has on told Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson July 5 during a meeting at his office in Washington.

“[The Nato summit to be held in Latvian capital] Vilnius in a week is certainly appropriate time for Sweden’s entry, but only Turkey can take Turkey’s decisions,” Kristersson said, following the meeting.

Kristersson and Biden have also agreed that the summit would be an appropriate time for the final approval, according to the Swedish PM.

Also on July 5, US Secretary of State Blinken held a phone call with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan to preview the upcoming Nato summit.

Blinken has stressed the importance of Nato unity at such a critical time and encouraged Turkey’s support for Sweden to join the alliance “now”.

On May 29, bne Intellinews noted: “The transactional Erdogan has no particular problem with Nato or Western governments. He will give the nod to Sweden’s accession into Nato in June. The deadline will fall with the defence alliance's summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on July 11-12.”

“Erdogan loves to test the margins of the playing field. He’s had a fine old time creating noise for public relations purposes over the Finnish and Swedish bids to join Nato. Nato, of course, has already de facto been closely co-operating with both Finland and Sweden. Now the Turkish elections are out of the way, it will want to get a move on with the formal expansion. Any more nonsense from Erdogan and things could turn rather sour.”

On June 26, Reuters reported that the US and Swedish authorities are reviewing a complaint alleging that Dignita Systems AB, the Swedish affiliate of a US company, pledged to pay out tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks if Erdogan’s son Bilal assisted it in obtaining a dominant market position in the country.

In 2018, during the row over the arrest of US Pastor Andrew Brunson in Turkey, the property holdings of Erdogan and his family in the US had become an issue, not long before Brunson was released.

In Vilnius, a ceremony that would honour Erdogan before cameras and a photo opportunity with Biden could end the Swedish accession drama.