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WASHINGTON (AP) With Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan taking an increasingly tough line against the NATO membership bids of Finland and Sweden despite far less strident statements from some of his top aides, U.S. officials are trying to determine how serious the often mercurial leader is and what it might take to get him to back down.

Amid the contradictory signals from Ankara over the applications before they were submitted on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet his Turkish counterpart in New York in a new effort to clarify Ankaras position after previous attempts appear to have only clouded the situation.

WATCH: Finland, Sweden ambassadors discuss the push to join NATO and future of security in Europe

Underscoring the sensitivity of the delicate diplomacy required to deal with a potentially recalcitrant ally, the Biden administration seems to have taken to ignoring Erdogan saying he cannot allow the two nations to join NATO due to their alleged support for groups Turkey sees as security threats. Instead, the administration is focusing on remarks made in closed-door meetings by lower-ranking Turkish officials.

It is not for us to speak for the Turkish government, State Department spokesman Ned Price said repeatedly on Tuesday in response to multiple questions about what the U.S. understands Turkeys position to be and whether Turkey had demanded anything from the United States in return for agreeing to Finlands and Swedens memberships.

At stake for the United States and its NATO partners is an opportunity to respond to Russias invasion of Ukraine by strengthening and expanding the alliance the very opposite of what President Vladimir Putin hoped to achieve in starting the war.

But Erdogans suggestions that he could derail Swedens and Finlands membership hopes also highlight a potential weakness that Putin has tried to exploit in the past the unwieldy nature of the consensus-run alliance where a single member can block actions supported by the other 29.

Initially seen in Washington and other NATO capitals as an easily resolved minor distraction to the process of enlarging the alliance in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine, Erdogans verbal volleys toward Finland and Sweden are attracting more concern as the two Nordic nations submitted formal applications Wednesday with the hope of joining as quickly as possible.

Even if they are overcome, objections from Turkey, which is the only one of NATOs 30 members to have raised reservations about the expansion so far, could delay Finlands and Swedens accession to the alliance for months, particularly if other nations follow suit in seeking concessions for their votes.

Erdogan, who has grown increasingly authoritarian over the years, is known to be an unpredictable leader and there have been occasions when his words have been at clear odds with what Turkish diplomats or other senior officials in his government have said.

I dont exclude a possible disconnect between Turkish diplomats and Erdogan. In the past there have been examples of such disconnect, said Barcin Yinan, a journalist and commentator on Turkish foreign policy. She said there was a disconnect between Erdogan and the Foreign Ministry last year, when the Turkish leader threatened to expel 10 Western diplomats, including the U.S. ambassador, whom he accused of meddling in Turkeys judiciary.

For instance, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Berlin on Sunday after discussions with Turkish officials that Turkey has made it clear that their intention is not to block membership. Meanwhile, Blinken and other foreign ministers, including Germanys top diplomat, Annalena Baerbock, expressed absolute confidence that all NATO members, including Turkey, would welcome the two newcomers.

READ MORE: Putin says Finland NATO membership would harm relations

Yet on Monday, Erdogan surprised many by doubling down on his criticism of Finland and Sweden, accusing them of supporting Kurdish militants and others whom Turkey considers to be terrorists and of imposing restrictions on military sales to Turkey.

Neither country has an open, clear stance against terrorist organizations, Erdogan said. We cannot say yes to those who impose sanctions on Turkey, on joining NATO, which is a security organization.

Asked about the disparity, Price, the State Department spokesman, would say only that Blinken, after meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavuoglu and others over the weekend, came away with the same sense of confidence that there was strong consensus for admitting Finland and Sweden into the alliance if they choose to join, and were confident well be able to preserve that consensus.

Gonul Tol, director of the Turkey program at the Middle East Institute, said that while Erdogan often talks a tough line, he tends to come around in the end and do the rational thing.

Erdogan is unpredictable. But at the same time, hes a very pragmatic actor, she said. Tol said Erdogan likes to negotiate and pushes for maximalist demands during the negotiations. He ends up settling for much less than that, she said.

She noted that Erdogans grievances with Western countries over the Kurds are not new and that strains between Turkey and the United States over military supplies are long-standing.

Having been dropped from the F-35 advanced fighter jet development program after buying a Russian air defense system, Turkey has been pressing the U.S. to sell it new F-16 fighters or at the very least refurbish its existing fleet. Discussions on both issues are taking place in Washington this week and some officials believe that while they are unrelated to the NATO enlargement question, resolutions to either could help persuade Erdogan to drop his objections.

Tol agreed and said: This is happening at a time when hes trying to mend ties with Washington, when Turkey is involved in negotiations to convince Congress to sell F-16s to Turkey. This is a time when Erdogan is trying to burnish his image as a valuable ally. And this is a time when the invasion of Ukraine has given him an opportunity to reach out to Western capitals. So against that background it would be a very dramatic step if Turkey in fact vetoes the application of Finland and Sweden.

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

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How serious is Turkeys Erdogan in denying Finland, Sweden NATO ...