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

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 subsequent month.

At a information conference in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no cause to believe Turkey’s concerns can't be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s prime diplomat stated Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara may help their membership.

“The USA fully supports Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be confident that each will soon be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We look ahead to having the ability to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

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

“We agreed to proceed to those talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We predict that these issues may be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some outcomes could possibly be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written purposes to affix NATO final week. The transfer represents one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s battle in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The countries’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO nations, however Turkey, which instructions the second-largest navy 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 Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s issues, like data on terror groups, during their go to to Turkey this week. He stated Ankara is awaiting particular solutions.

Cavusoglu mentioned “an method of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we're mates and allies’ would not be right.” He insisted that “these nations must take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s safety issues however ... everybody also wants to understand Turkey’s reliable security considerations.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it said was “termination of political assist 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 world cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a news convention with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed strong support for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There is no 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 Overseas Minister Bogdan Aurescu, agreed, saying their membership would “consolidate the collective defense and our security.”

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