US: Turkey’s NATO points with Sweden, Finland will be fixed

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Friday he’s confident Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden becoming a member of NATO will be overcome swiftly, probably in time for a summit of alliance leaders at the finish of subsequent month.

At a news convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no cause to imagine Turkey’s considerations cannot be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s top diplomat said Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara could help their membership.

“America totally supports Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I proceed to be assured that both will soon be NATO members,” Blinken mentioned. “We look ahead to having the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto stated his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their considerations in recent days and mentioned these discussions would proceed with a watch toward resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid on the finish of June.

“We agreed to continue to these talks,” Haavisto stated. “We expect that these issues will be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some results could be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO final week. The move represents one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s security map.

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

Earlier Friday, Turkish Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s issues, like info on terror teams, during their go to to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

Cavusoglu mentioned “an strategy of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we are buddies and allies’ would not be correct.” He insisted that “these international locations have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s security considerations however ... everybody additionally wants to understand Turkey’s authentic safety considerations.”

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

The calls for additionally called for the lifting of arms sanctions in opposition to Turkey and global cooperation towards terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback came at a news convention with the visiting overseas ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed strong assist for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There is no doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance with a view to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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