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

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday he’s confident Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden joining NATO may be overcome swiftly, possibly in time for a summit of alliance leaders at the finish of next month.

At a news convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no motive to consider Turkey’s considerations cannot be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s top diplomat stated Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara could help their membership.

“The United States totally helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be assured that each will soon be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We look ahead to having the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto stated his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their issues in current days and stated those discussions would proceed with an eye fixed toward resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid on the end of June.

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

Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO last week. The transfer represents one of the greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The nations’ membership bids require support from all 30 present NATO countries, but Turkey, which commands the second-largest military in 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 Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s considerations, like info on terror groups, during their go to to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

Cavusoglu stated “an strategy of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we're friends 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 safety concerns but ... everybody also wants to understand Turkey’s respectable safety concerns.”

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

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a information conference with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed robust help for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There isn't a doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance with a purpose to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine