US: Turkey’s NATO issues with Sweden, Finland can 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 could be overcome swiftly, presumably in time for a summit of alliance leaders on the end of subsequent month.

At a information convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no motive to consider Turkey’s issues cannot be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s top diplomat said Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara might help their membership.

“The USA absolutely supports Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be confident that both will soon be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We stay up for being able to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto stated his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their considerations in latest days and mentioned those discussions would continue with an eye towards resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid on the end of June.

“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We predict that these issues can be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results could possibly be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written functions to affix NATO final week. The move represents one of the largest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s struggle in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The countries’ membership bids require support from all 30 current NATO countries, but Turkey, which commands the second-largest military 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 Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s issues, like info on terror teams, during their visit to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

Cavusoglu said “an approach of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we are friends and allies’ would not be appropriate.” He insisted that “these countries have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s safety issues but ... everybody additionally needs to understand Turkey’s official safety issues.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it mentioned was “termination of political support for terrorism,” an “elimination of the source 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 referred to as for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and international cooperation towards terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback came at a news convention with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed strong help 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 to be able to make it stronger,” Polish International Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

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