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

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

At a information conference in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no motive to imagine Turkey’s concerns can't be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s high diplomat stated Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara may support their membership.

“The US fully helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be assured that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We look ahead to being able to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto stated his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their issues in recent days and stated 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 proceed to these talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We predict that these issues may be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some outcomes might be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written purposes to affix NATO last week. The move represents one of many greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The international locations’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO countries, however Turkey, which instructions the second-largest military in the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged assist for Kurdish militants whom Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons gross sales to Turkey.

Earlier Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s considerations, like data on terror groups, during their visit to Turkey this week. He stated Ankara is awaiting particular solutions.

Cavusoglu stated “an method of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we are associates and allies’ would not be appropriate.” He insisted that “these nations must take concrete steps.”

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

Turkey this week listed 5 “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 assist” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.

The demands also known as for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and international cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback came at a news 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 any doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance with a view to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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