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

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 can be overcome swiftly, possibly in time for a summit of alliance leaders on the finish of subsequent month.

At a information conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no cause to imagine Turkey’s issues cannot be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s high diplomat stated Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara might assist their membership.

“The US fully helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be assured that each will soon be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We stay up for having the ability to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto mentioned his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their considerations in recent days and stated those discussions would proceed with an eye fixed toward resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid on the end of June.

“We agreed to continue to these talks,” Haavisto said. “We predict that these issues could be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results could be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

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

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

Earlier Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s issues, like information on terror groups, during their visit to Turkey this week. He stated Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

Cavusoglu stated “an method of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we're friends and allies’ wouldn't be correct.” He insisted that “these international locations must take concrete steps.”

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

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it mentioned was “termination of political support 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 against Turkey and international cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback came at a news convention with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed robust support 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 mentioned.

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

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