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

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned 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 on the end of next month.

At a information convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no cause to imagine Turkey’s issues can't be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s top diplomat stated Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara may help their membership.

“America totally helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be confident that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We look forward to having the ability to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

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

“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We expect that these problems will be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some outcomes may very well be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written purposes to join NATO final week. The transfer represents one of the greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The countries’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO countries, however Turkey, which commands the second-largest navy within 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 stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s concerns, like data on terror groups, throughout their go to to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

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

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s security considerations but ... everyone additionally wants to grasp Turkey’s official security concerns.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it mentioned was “termination of political assist 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 referred to as for the lifting of arms sanctions in opposition to Turkey and global cooperation towards terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a information convention with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed strong support 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 Overseas Minister Bogdan Aurescu, agreed, saying their membership would “consolidate the collective defense and our security.”

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