NATO chief to attend President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's inauguration

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is to attend the inauguration of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Western military alliance announced on Friday.

Stoltenberg is to attend the ceremony in Ankara on Saturday, as well as speak with Erdoğan in a bilateral meeting, as part of the weekend visit, according to a NATO statement.

The secretary-general previously said his visit to Türkiye aimed to "ensure the fastest possible accession of Sweden" to the alliance at a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Norway.

After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year, Sweden together with Finland, applied for NATO membership in May 2022.

While Finland became the 31st member of the defence alliance in April, Sweden's membership is still pending Turkish ratification due to a number of sticking points including Ankara's concerns over what it says is a lack of cooperation in fighting terrorism.

Türkiye continues to block Swedish accession on the grounds that Sweden refuses to extradite people viewed by Ankara as terrorists.

Stoltenberg has highlighted that Sweden's new counterterrorism laws that entered into force on Thursday were a demonstration that Stockholm was meeting Turkish concerns about fighting terrorism.

However even if Turkish concerns are addressed, there still remains the issue of Hungary, who also has yet to ratify Sweden's NATO membership, pointing to grievances with Stockholm including EU budget funds.