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

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

At a information conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no reason to consider Turkey’s concerns can't be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s top diplomat stated Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara might help their membership.

“The United States absolutely helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I proceed to be assured that both will soon be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We look ahead to having the ability to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto said his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their issues in latest days and said these discussions would proceed with an eye toward resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid at the finish of June.

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

Sweden and Finland submitted their written purposes to hitch NATO final week. The transfer represents one of many biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s war in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s security map.

The nations’ membership bids require support from all 30 present NATO nations, however Turkey, which commands the second-largest army in 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 Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s concerns, like data on terror teams, throughout their visit to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

Cavusoglu stated “an method of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we're buddies and allies’ wouldn't be correct.” He insisted that “these international locations need to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s security concerns but ... everyone also wants to know Turkey’s reliable safety considerations.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it stated was “termination of political support for terrorism,” an “elimination of the source of terrorism financing,” and the “cessation of arms assist” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.

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

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a news conference with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed robust 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 with the intention to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

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