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

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday he’s confident Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden becoming a member of NATO could be overcome swiftly, probably in time for a summit of alliance leaders at the end of next month.

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no motive to believe Turkey’s considerations can't be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s top diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara could help their membership.

“America totally supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be assured that both will soon be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We sit up for having the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto said his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their issues in current days and said those 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 proceed to these talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We predict that these problems could 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 join NATO final week. The transfer represents one of many greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The international locations’ membership bids require support from all 30 current NATO nations, however Turkey, which commands the second-largest military within 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 Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s concerns, like info on terror teams, throughout their go to to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

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

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s safety considerations however ... everyone additionally wants to know Turkey’s authentic safety considerations.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “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 help” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.

The calls for also called for the lifting of arms sanctions in opposition to Turkey and global cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback came at a news conference with the visiting overseas ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed strong 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 a purpose to make it stronger,” Polish International Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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