ISTANBUL, July 10. /TASS/. The meeting of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Sweden’s accession to NATO lasted for about two hours, Turkish state TV channel TRT reported from Vilnius, the venue of the talks.

No statements for the press followed, it said. The meeting was held on the eve of a NATO summit, which begins on Tuesday, at the initiative of the Alliance's secretary general to try to persuade Ankara to revise its position on Sweden's NATO membership.

Turkish authorities have previously repeatedly said that the main condition for this should be Sweden's meeting the commitments under the Madrid Memorandum on combating terrorism, which was signed last June on the sidelines of a NATO summit. However, before flying to Vilnius, Erdogan made a surprise announcement, noting that Turkey would support Sweden's bid to join the alliance in exchange for the removal of barriers to Ankara's EU membership.