Erdogan leads a country that's home to NATO's second-largest military, but also has a friendly and growing relationship with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Harris agrees. "He's already achieved his objective," he said of Erdogan. "So is Sweden going to get into NATO? I would put money on that, guaranteed. Why would he fight that battle anymore? That was an election issue."
Already, Sweden's foreign ministry on Monday said the Swedish and Turkish foreign ministers will meet "soon" to discuss Stockholm's potential accession to NATO, according to Reuters.Ultimately, Erdogan's foreign policy decisions will be made with the intent to primarily benefit Turkey, not its Western allies. In the words of former U.S. ambassador to Turkey David Satterfield, Ankara's relationship with Russia is "vital" — whether positive for NATO or not.
"Turkey has been a critical partner for the NATO alliance and for the broader international coalition opposing Putin's war in Ukraine ... I think 'supporting Russia' is not the term I would use," Satterfield told CNBC's Dan Murphy on Friday. "Turkey has a vital relationship with Russia, its relationship that has generated both good and bad for Turkey in the past," he said.
"We welcome, welcome the dialogue that President Erdogan has with President Putin, when the subject is stabilization, when the subject is the ability to access grain and other products through the Black Sea from Ukraine, that has been extremely useful and extremely important," the ambassador said. "And we do not see this as a pivot or an alignment of some kind with Russia. We see it as the conduct of necessary relations with a very important, for good or ill, neighbor of Turkey."
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