Blinken to discuss NATO membership for Sweden Monday

May 26 (UPI) -- Beginning on Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Sweden, Norway and Finland to discuss national security cooperation and NATO membership for Sweden.

The State Department said that Blinken will be in Lulea, Sweden, from Monday to Wednesday, for the fourth meeting of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council to accelerate the global clean tech transition. He will also discuss the war in Ukraine and meet with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström.

Then, he will head to Oslo to attend a meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs to discuss preparations for the July NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. The Hill reported that Blinken will also push Turkey and Hungary to ratify Sweden's accession to NATO while in Norway.

On April 4, Finland officially became a member of NATO, enlarging the European military alliance to 31 countries while drawing threats from Russia.

In celebrating Finland's arrival as part of NATO, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said there will be no NATO troops on Finland's soil without that country's approval, but the country will take part in military exercises.

"What we have in many countries is that we have exercises, we have a naval and an air presence and so on but we don't have permanent bases," Stoltenberg said. "This has not been an issue so far in our discussions with Finland."

However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he will not support Sweden's entry into NATO after anti-Muslim protests in Stockholm.

The protest, organized by Danish far-right leader Rasmus Paludan, was reportedly in support of the Kurdistan Workers Party, of PKK. The party is considered a terrorist organization in Turkey and much of the Western world.

"Sweden should not expect support from us for NATO," Erdogan said in response to the Stockholm protest during a news conference. "It is clear that those who caused such a disgrace in front of our country's embassy can no longer expect any benevolence from us regarding their application."