US: Turkey’s NATO points with Sweden, Finland will likely 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 on the finish of next month.

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

“America absolutely helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be confident that both will soon be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We stay up for being able to call 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 those discussions would proceed with an eye 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 issues could be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some outcomes could be achieved before the NATO summit.”

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

The nations’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO nations, but Turkey, which instructions 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 Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s concerns, like information on terror teams, throughout their go to to Turkey this week. He stated Ankara is awaiting particular solutions.

Cavusoglu mentioned “an method of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we are pals and allies’ wouldn't be right.” He insisted that “these nations have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s security issues but ... everyone also needs to know Turkey’s legit security issues.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it mentioned 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 calls for additionally known as for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and world cooperation towards terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a news conference with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed robust support 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 International Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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