US: Turkey’s NATO issues with Sweden, Finland will be fixed

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

At a news convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no purpose to believe Turkey’s considerations cannot be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s prime diplomat stated Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara might help their membership.

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

Haavisto said his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their concerns in latest days and stated these discussions would continue with a watch towards resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid on the finish of June.

“We agreed to proceed to these talks,” Haavisto stated. “We predict that these issues will 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 affix NATO final week. The transfer represents one of many greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s war in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s safety map.

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

Earlier Friday, Turkish Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s concerns, like information on terror groups, throughout their visit to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

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

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s safety issues however ... everyone also wants to grasp Turkey’s legit security concerns.”

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

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a information 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 view to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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Comply with the AP’s coverage of the battle at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine