"The Foreign Secretary will give full UK backing to Sweden's bid to become NATO members on a visit to the country this week. Ahead of next month's NATO Summit in Lithuania, James Cleverly will visit Gotland, a strategically important island, sitting just over 200 miles north of Kaliningrad, home to Russia's Baltic Fleet," the UK government said in a statement.
Cleverly will hold a meeting on security cooperation, assistance to Kiev and possible challenges from China with his Swedish counterpart, Tobias Billstrom. The two top diplomats are also scheduled to discuss European security as part of the Almedalen Week political forum and observe the operation of a Swedish submarine rescue ship, the UK government said.
"My message to our Swedish friends is clear, the UK is doing all that we can to support their accession to NATO, which must happen as soon as possible to bolster our defences and make us all safer," Cleverly was quoted as saying in the statement.
With the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden abandoned its long-term neutrality and, jointly with Finland, applied to join NATO in May of that year. Finland's application was approved this July, while Sweden's bid still remains vetoed by Turkiye and Hungary.
The NATO summit in Vilnius is scheduled for July 11-12.