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

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 could be overcome swiftly, possibly in time for a summit of alliance leaders at the finish of next month.

At a information conference in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no reason to believe Turkey’s issues can't be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s high diplomat stated Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara could support their membership.

“The United States absolutely helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I proceed to be confident that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We stay up for being able to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto stated his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their concerns in current days and stated those discussions would proceed with an eye fixed towards resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid at the finish of June.

“We agreed to proceed to these talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We predict that these issues might be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results might be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to hitch NATO final week. The transfer represents one of the greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s battle in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s security map.

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

Earlier Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s considerations, like data on terror groups, during their go to to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting particular solutions.

Cavusoglu stated “an strategy of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we are pals and allies’ would not be correct.” He insisted that “these international locations must take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s security concerns however ... everyone also needs to grasp Turkey’s reliable safety considerations.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it mentioned was “termination of political assist for terrorism,” an “elimination of the source 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 referred to as for the lifting of arms sanctions in opposition to Turkey and world cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback got here at a information convention with the visiting overseas ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each 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 an effort to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

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