WASHINGTON

US President Joe Biden hosted Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at the White House on Wednesday and said he "fully supports" the Nordic country's NATO membership bid.

"Sweden is going to make our alliance stronger," Biden told reporters ahead of a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office and added he was "anxiously looking forward" to Sweden's NATO membership.

Kristersson said his government "highly appreciate" the US' "strong support" for its NATO accession.

"We do seek common protection, but we also do think that we have things to contribute with to be a security provider for the whole of NATO," he said. "I very much look forward to our talks here today."

Kristersson's visit came one day before NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg convenes a meeting of senior officials from Turkey, Sweden and Finland in Brussels, concerning Sweden's bid to join the alliance ahead of a NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 11 - 12.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the US has encouraged Türkiye and Hungary “to approve Sweden's application for NATO membership as soon as possible.”

Sweden has “fulfilled the commitments they made under the trilateral Memorandum of Agreement,” she said. “Sweden is a strong capable defense partner that shares NATO's values and will strengthen the alliance and contract and contribute to European security.”

Jean-Pierre said it was “important” to have the Swedish prime minister at the White House ahead of the NATO summit.

“The president has been very clear about Sweden becoming a member of NATO. And so we will continue to be outspoken about that and continue to be public about that,” she added. 

Asked about the burning of Islam’s holy book, the Quran, in Sweden last week, Jean-Pierre said: “The burning of the Koran is something that the president would certainly agree is disappointing to see but I'm just not going to get ahead of any conversations.”

Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership soon after Russia launched a war in Ukraine in February 2022.

Although Türkiye approved Finland's membership, it is waiting for Sweden to abide by a trilateral memorandum signed last June in Madrid to address Ankara's security concerns on terrorism.

Hungary said it postponed Sweden's NATO accession bid to its autumn legislation.