US: Turkey’s NATO issues with Sweden, Finland shall 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 can be overcome swiftly, possibly in time for a summit of alliance leaders at the finish of subsequent month.

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

“The United States totally helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be confident that both will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We look forward to having the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto said his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their concerns in recent days and mentioned those discussions would continue with a watch toward resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid on the finish of June.

“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto said. “We predict that these problems will be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some outcomes could possibly be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to hitch NATO last week. The move represents one of many largest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s security map.

The nations’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO international locations, however Turkey, which commands the second-largest military 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 International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s concerns, like information on terror teams, during their visit to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

Cavusoglu mentioned “an strategy of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we are buddies and allies’ wouldn't be appropriate.” He insisted that “these international locations need to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s security issues however ... everyone additionally needs to grasp Turkey’s official security concerns.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it stated was “termination of political help for terrorism,” an “elimination of the supply 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 referred to as for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and world cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a news conference with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed strong assist for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There is no such thing as a doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance as a way to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas 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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