US: Turkey’s NATO points with Sweden, Finland might be fastened

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday he’s assured Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden becoming a member of NATO may be overcome swiftly, possibly in time for a summit of alliance leaders on the end of next month.

At a news convention in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no reason to believe Turkey’s considerations can't be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s top diplomat said Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara could help their membership.

“The US absolutely helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I continue to be confident that both will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken mentioned. “We stay up for with the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto said his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their issues in latest days and said these discussions would proceed with an eye toward resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid at the finish of June.

“We agreed to continue to these talks,” Haavisto said. “We expect that these issues will be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results might be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written functions to join NATO final week. The move represents one of the greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s war in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s security map.

The international locations’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO nations, however Turkey, which commands the second-largest military within the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged support for Kurdish militants whom Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons sales to Turkey.

Earlier Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s considerations, like data on terror teams, throughout their go to to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

Cavusoglu stated “an strategy of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we are friends and allies’ wouldn't be appropriate.” He insisted that “these nations must take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s security concerns however ... everyone also wants to grasp Turkey’s legitimate safety considerations.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it said was “termination of political help for terrorism,” an “elimination of the supply of terrorism financing,” and the “cessation of arms support” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.

The calls for also called for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and global cooperation towards terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a information conference with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed robust assist for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There is no such thing as a doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance in order to make it stronger,” Polish International Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

Romanian Overseas Minister Bogdan Aurescu, agreed, saying their membership would “consolidate the collective protection and our security.”

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