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

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday he’s assured Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden becoming a member of NATO might be overcome swiftly, probably in time for a summit of alliance leaders on the finish of next month.

At a news convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no reason to consider Turkey’s considerations can't be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s high diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara might assist their membership.

“The United States totally supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be confident that both will soon be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We look ahead to being able to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto stated his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their considerations in current days and mentioned these discussions would proceed with a watch towards resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid on the finish of June.

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

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

The nations’ membership bids require assist from all 30 present NATO nations, however 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 sales to Turkey.

Earlier Friday, Turkish Overseas 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 said Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

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

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

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 support” 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 towards Turkey and world cooperation towards terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a information conference with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed strong assist 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 so as to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

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