US: Turkey’s NATO points with Sweden, Finland shall be mounted

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

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no motive to consider Turkey’s issues cannot be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s prime diplomat stated Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara may support their membership.

“The United States fully helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be assured that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We stay 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 latest days and stated those discussions would proceed with a watch towards resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid on the finish of June.

“We agreed to proceed to these talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We think that these problems might be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some results might be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to affix NATO final week. The move represents one of many largest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s security map.

The countries’ membership bids require help from all 30 present NATO international locations, but Turkey, which instructions the second-largest military in the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged assist for Kurdish militants whom Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons sales to Turkey.

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

Cavusoglu said “an method of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we're mates and allies’ would not be appropriate.” He insisted that “these nations must take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s security considerations but ... everyone additionally wants to know Turkey’s official security issues.”

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 support” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.

The demands additionally referred to as for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback came at a news conference with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed sturdy help for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There isn't a doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance so as to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

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