Biden to meet with Turkey’s Erdogan and Ukraine’s Zelenskyy at NATO summit

President Joe Biden is planning to hold two high-profile bilateral meetings during the NATO summit this week, finding time to sit down one-on-one with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The sessions, described to POLITICO by a White House official and two people familiar with the planning, will come on the sidelines of the two-gathering of transatlantic allies this week.

Biden’s scheduled meeting with Erdoğan on Tuesday comes after the Turkish president agreed late Monday to accept Sweden’s bid to become NATO’s 32nd member. Ankara had been blocking Sweden’s accession for more than a year, claiming that Stockholm was too cozy with Kurds that Ankara considers to be terrorists.

The meeting with Zelenskyy, planned for Wednesday, is expected to be equally as testy. Kyiv hopes NATO would provide Ukraine with a speedy path into the alliance, even though Biden and other member nations oppose the idea of doing that soon. One reason is that making Ukraine an ally now would essentially put NATO at war with Russia, which continues its nine-year invasion.

Biden will look to convince Zelenskyy that removing a series of bureaucratic hurdles and reforms, in addition to a large security commitment by the U.S. and some NATO allies, was the most Kyiv could get in Vilnius this year.

Ukraine has not confirmed any plans for Zelenskyy to attend the summit.
It’s unclear if either discussion will produce a breakthrough. But holding the meetings shows Biden wants to invest himself personally — and the power of the presidency — in both relationships.

All three individuals were granted anonymity to discuss internal planning for the summit. The National Security Council didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.