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

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

At a news convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no motive to imagine Turkey’s issues can't be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s prime diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara could support their membership.

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

Haavisto said his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their issues in current days and stated those discussions would continue with an eye toward resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid on the end of June.

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

Sweden and Finland submitted their written functions to affix NATO last week. The move represents one of many greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s war in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The nations’ membership bids require help from all 30 present NATO nations, but Turkey, which instructions the second-largest army in 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 issues, like information on terror teams, during their visit to Turkey this week. He stated Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

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

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s safety concerns but ... everybody also wants to grasp Turkey’s reputable security considerations.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it said was “termination of political support for terrorism,” an “elimination of the source of terrorism financing,” and the “cessation of arms assist” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.

The demands also called for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback came at a information convention with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed robust help 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 view to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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