US: Turkey’s NATO points with Sweden, Finland might be fixed

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday he’s assured Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden joining NATO may be overcome swiftly, possibly in time for a summit of alliance leaders at the end of subsequent 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 feedback came after Turkey’s high diplomat said Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara might assist their membership.

“America totally supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be confident that both will soon be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We look ahead to being able to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto mentioned his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their issues in current days and mentioned these discussions would continue with an eye 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 issues may be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results may very well be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written purposes to join NATO last week. The move represents one of many biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s safety map.

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

Earlier Friday, Turkish International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s issues, like information on terror groups, throughout their go to to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

Cavusoglu mentioned “an strategy of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we are associates and allies’ wouldn't be correct.” He insisted that “these international locations have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s security issues however ... everyone additionally wants to know Turkey’s legitimate 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 supply 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 additionally known as for the lifting of arms sanctions in opposition to Turkey and international cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a information conference with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed sturdy support for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There isn't any doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance so as to make it stronger,” Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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Observe the AP’s protection of the warfare at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine