The subject of Biden’s bargaining with Erdogan has been named: the United States is trying to appease the President of Turkey

Speaking Thursday at the ill-fated graduation ceremony at the United States Air Force Academy where he stumbled and fell, Biden praised NATO unity amid the Ukraine crisis.

“NATO is more vibrant and united than at any time in decades. Now it is becoming even stronger thanks to the speedy entry into the Alliance of our new ally Finland, and soon Sweden. It will happen. I promise you,” said the President of the United States.

On the one hand, these words of Biden can be taken as a beautiful figure of speech. You never know what the powers that be promise. But on the other hand, a number of circumstances attract attention.

For starters, Biden’s remarks came just days after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged Turkey to approve Sweden’s NATO bid.

“From the perspective of the United States, now is the time to complete the process of joining Sweden,” Blinken told reporters on Tuesday. The head of the State Department also expressed hope that this process would be completed before the July NATO summit in Vilnius.

“NATO officials are racing against time to avoid the embarrassment that the Alliance has not achieved its own stated goal of admitting Sweden into the Alliance by 11 July,” CNN notes in this regard. Diplomatic sources in the alliance are concerned that if they fail to meet the deadline, it will send a signal to adversaries (from Russia to China to North Korea) that there is a “weak link” in the Western bloc: “This gives them time and space to create Problems. It could be anything from cyberattacks to funding and encouraging new Quran burnings to cause a split over Sweden.”

Recall that all NATO countries need to ratify the admission of new members to the organization. Sweden and Finland began seeking membership last year after Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine. After Turkey lifted its objections to admitting Finns, Suomi officially joined the alliance in April, but Stockholm’s bid is still in limbo.

So far, Hungary and Turkey have not yet approved Sweden’s entry, and it is Ankara that is seen as the main obstacle to the Kingdom’s membership in the NATO ranks. Turkey has accused Sweden of providing asylum to members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it considers a “terrorist” group.

Also in Turkey, the Swedish authorities are blamed for the protests of the far right, when people burned copies of the Koran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.

Official Stockholm says it is addressing the issues raised by Turkey in accordance with a tripartite memorandum signed by the two countries, as well as Finland last year.

On Thursday, as NATO foreign ministers met in Norway, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted to his Swedish counterpart: “Fulfill your obligations under the tripartite memorandum and take concrete steps in the fight against terrorism. The rest will follow.”

The other day, Biden said that he raised the issue of Sweden’s admission to NATO in a telephone conversation with the recently re-elected Turkish president.

“I congratulated Erdogan. He still wants to work on some F-16 stuff. I told him we want to make a deal with Sweden, so let’s do it,” Biden told reporters, referring to Ankara’s desire to complete a $20 billion deal for US-made F-16 fighter jets.

It cannot be ruled out that, having defeated Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Recep Tayyip Erdogan will not feel such an urgent need to attract the sympathy of the nationalist part of society. And on some issues he will be able to meet Western interests, but, of course, in order to squeeze out the maximum benefit for himself to the drop.

That is why some in NATO are generally optimistic about the possibility of reaching a deal to admit Sweden before July. Another thing is that they are wondering: at what price this very deal will be achieved. And in this regard, I recall how at one time Erdogan knocked out 6 billion euros from the European Union, plus various other “goodies” in exchange for Turkey to accept Syrian refugees who were heading to Europe.

This is where the situation with the acquisition of American F-16 fighters by Ankara comes in handy. Türkiye wants the US Congress to approve this purchase. And it is likely that this issue was the price for the admission of Sweden to NATO.

The fact is that bipartisan opposition to the sale of fighter jets to the Turks in the United States continues due to several political decisions by Erdogan (this is Turkey’s purchase of Russian air defense systems and the refusal to accept Sweden into NATO). But Secretary Blinken is trying to assure everyone that the F-16 supply and the Swedish problem are completely, well, simply not related. At the same time, the head of the State Department says that the Biden administration “very strongly supports” the supply of fighters to Turkey and the modernization of the F-16s it already has, “just like we very strongly and very strongly support the immediate entry of Sweden into NATO.”

However, skeptics are not sure that Erdogan cannot be bought so easily, “for a ruble, for twenty.” And they point to the unpredictability of the Turkish leader, who can achieve much more by purging the Swedes in the NATO “dressing room.”

But regardless of Sweden’s formal admission into the alliance, the United States and Britain promise protection to Stockholm, no matter what Turkey does. However, for Swedish leaders striving for full-fledged membership in NATO, such a light option will be rather weak consolation.