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

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

At a news convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no motive to imagine Turkey’s concerns cannot be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s high diplomat said Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara might support their membership.

“The USA totally supports Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I proceed to be assured that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We stay up for with 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 stated those discussions would continue with a watch toward resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June.

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

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

The countries’ membership bids require help from all 30 current NATO nations, 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 considerations, like information on terror groups, throughout their go to to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting particular answers.

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

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

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it said was “termination of political help 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 additionally known as for the lifting of arms sanctions in opposition to Turkey and international cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a information convention 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 doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance with the intention to make it stronger,” Polish Foreign 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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