U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday (February 20) to discuss Sweden and Finland's NATO accession and to promise help after earthquakes rocked the country two weeks ago, Reuters reports.
The Nordic countries' NATO bids have been stalled because Turkey has refused to ratify them, saying Stockholm in particular has harboured what it calls members of terrorist groups. Ankara recently indicated it would approve only Finland.
Relations between the NATO allies have been strained since 2019 when Ankara acquired Russian missile defence systems, among other sources of tension between them.
Earlier on Monday Blinken met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and said the U.S. would support Turkey "for as long as it takes" after its devastating earthquakes.
The United States has sent a search and rescue team to Turkey, along with medical supplies, concrete-breaking machinery and additional funding of $85 million in humanitarian aid that also covers Syria.
Blinken was speaking after his visit on Sunday (February 19) to the quake zone, where rescue work was winding down two weeks after the worst disaster in the country's modern history. The quakes killed more than 46,000 people in Turkey and northwest Syria.
Total U.S. humanitarian assistance to support the earthquake response in Turkey and Syria has reached $185 million, the U.S. State Department has said.
