US President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he is “looking forward” to Sweden joining NATO, during a conversation he had with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson at the White House.

With Christerson by his side, the US president told reporters that he “fully supports Sweden’s membership” in the Atlantic alliance, which is currently blocked by Turkey.

Biden leaves on Sunday for a trip that will take him to three countries, of which the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania stands out.

Kristerson thanked Biden for the invitation and said Sweden “highly appreciates” the US president’s support for the Nordic country’s accession to NATO. “And we also believe we have things to contribute,” he said.

After his meeting with Joe Biden, the Swedish prime minister said that the American president expressed very strong support for Sweden’s NATO membership. He also stated that Washington and Stockholm agree that the NATO summit in Vilnius is the right time for Sweden to join NATO.

“We both realize that the NATO summit in Vilnius in a week is a very opportune time to conclude this. But we both also know that it is entirely up to Turkey to make its own decisions,” Christerson told reporters at the Swedish Embassy in Washington.

There are doubts whether Turkey will lift its opposition in time to allow NATO leaders to welcome Sweden as a full member at the summit.

Today Thursday at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, the foreign ministers of Turkey and Sweden, the heads of the secret services and National Security advisors from the two countries will meet, in an attempt to find a solution to the impasse ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius.