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

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

At a information convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no purpose to believe Turkey’s concerns cannot be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s top diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara may support their membership.

“The USA totally helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I proceed to be assured that both will soon be NATO members,” Blinken mentioned. “We look ahead to with the ability to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

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

“We agreed to proceed to these talks,” Haavisto said. “We think that these problems may be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some outcomes may very well be achieved before the NATO summit.”

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

The international locations’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO countries, however Turkey, which commands the second-largest navy within the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged assist for Kurdish militants whom Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons gross sales to Turkey.

Earlier Friday, Turkish International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork 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 strategy of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we're associates and allies’ would not be right.” He insisted that “these international locations need to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s security considerations however ... everybody additionally needs to understand Turkey’s professional safety concerns.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it said was “termination of political help for terrorism,” an “elimination of the supply 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 also called for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and world cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a news conference with the visiting overseas ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed sturdy 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 to be able to make it stronger,” Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

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