The United States exerts suffocating pressure on Tayyip Erdogan and Viktor Orban to approve Sweden’s NATO membership by July.

On a visit to Sweden, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday called on Turkey and Hungary to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership “as soon as possible”, declaring that this should be done before the alliance’s next summit. in early July.

“We look forward to welcoming Sweden as the 32nd member soon. And to be clear, we expect that to happen before the July summit,” Lloyd Austin said during a visit to Sweden’s Muska naval base near Stockholm.

“Therefore we urge Turkey and Hungary to ratify Sweden’s accession as soon as possible”, he added.

The US military has stepped up its naval and air missions to Sweden “in order to underline that deep support”, the US secretary explained, following threats of retaliation made in early April by the Russian ambassador in Stockholm.

“We recently welcomed Finland as the 31st member of NATO and look forward to welcoming Sweden soon as the 32nd (…) Sweden’s accession to NATO will mean a stronger alliance and a safer Europe” clarified the American Secretary of Defense.

Washington supports from the beginning the accession of Finland – which entered into force on April 4 – and that of Sweden, which has been waiting for months for the necessary “green light” from Turkey and Hungary.

Sweden and the alliance hope to clear the roadblocks before the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania in early July, but the issue is shaping up to be difficult.

According to analysts, much will depend on the outcome of elections in Turkey on May 14, where outgoing president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is running for a new term.

Turkey mainly accuses Sweden of being a haven for Kurdish “terrorists” hostile to Ankara, demanding dozens of deportations.