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

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated Friday he’s assured Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden joining NATO will 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 Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no cause to believe Turkey’s issues cannot be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s prime diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara could support their membership.

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

Haavisto mentioned his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their issues in recent days and stated these discussions would continue with an eye toward resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid on the finish of June.

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

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

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

Earlier Friday, Turkish International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s issues, like data on terror teams, during their go to to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting particular solutions.

Cavusoglu said “an method of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we are friends and allies’ would not be correct.” He insisted that “these international locations must take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s safety concerns but ... everybody also needs to know Turkey’s reputable safety considerations.”

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

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a news conference with the visiting foreign 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 as a way to make it stronger,” Polish Foreign 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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