US: Turkey’s NATO issues with Sweden, Finland might 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 may be overcome swiftly, presumably in time for a summit of alliance leaders at the finish of subsequent month.

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no purpose to imagine Turkey’s issues can't be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s prime diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara may help their membership.

“The United States fully helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be assured that each will soon be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We sit 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 issues in latest days and said these discussions would proceed with an eye fixed towards resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid at the finish of June.

“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto stated. “We expect that these issues can be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some results might be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written functions to join NATO last week. The transfer represents one of many biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s struggle in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s security map.

The nations’ membership bids require support 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 help 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 paperwork detailing Turkey’s issues, like information on terror groups, throughout 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're mates and allies’ wouldn't be correct.” He insisted that “these countries must take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s safety issues however ... everyone additionally wants to grasp Turkey’s legitimate 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 assist” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.

The calls for also known as for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and world cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a news convention with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed sturdy 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 so as to make it stronger,” Polish International Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

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