US: Turkey’s NATO issues with Sweden, Finland can be fixed

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

At a news convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no reason to believe Turkey’s issues cannot be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s prime diplomat said Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara may help their membership.

“The USA totally helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be confident that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We look forward 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 latest days and mentioned these discussions would continue with an eye towards resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid on the finish of June.

“We agreed to continue to these talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We predict that these issues can be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some outcomes could possibly be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written purposes to affix NATO last week. The transfer represents one of the largest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s battle in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s safety map.

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

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

Cavusoglu stated “an method of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we are friends and allies’ would not be right.” He insisted that “these countries need to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s security considerations but ... everybody also needs to grasp Turkey’s legitimate safety considerations.”

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

The demands also known as for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and world cooperation against terrorism.

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

“There isn't any doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance with the intention to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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Observe the AP’s coverage of the battle at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine