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

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

At a information convention in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no cause to consider Turkey’s concerns can't be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s high diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara may help their membership.

“America absolutely supports Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I proceed to be confident that both will soon be NATO members,” Blinken mentioned. “We look forward to having the ability to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto mentioned his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their concerns in current days and stated those discussions would proceed with an eye fixed towards resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid at the finish of June.

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

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

The countries’ membership bids require help from all 30 current NATO international locations, however Turkey, which commands the second-largest army in 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 said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s issues, like info on terror groups, throughout their go to to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting particular answers.

Cavusoglu mentioned “an approach of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we're friends and allies’ wouldn't be appropriate.” He insisted that “these international locations have to take concrete steps.”

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

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

The demands additionally known as for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback got here at a news convention with the visiting overseas ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed strong support for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There isn't a 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 stated.

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

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