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

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Friday he’s assured Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden joining 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 Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no motive to believe Turkey’s concerns can't be addressed. His feedback came after Turkey’s high diplomat stated Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara might assist their membership.

“The US totally helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I proceed to be confident that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We look ahead to being able to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

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

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

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

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

Earlier Friday, Turkish Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s considerations, like data on terror groups, throughout their go to to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

Cavusoglu said “an strategy of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we are mates and allies’ would not be right.” He insisted that “these nations have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s safety considerations but ... everyone additionally wants to understand Turkey’s legitimate safety issues.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it mentioned 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 towards Turkey and world cooperation towards terrorism.

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

“There isn't any doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance in order to make it stronger,” Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

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