US: Turkey’s NATO issues 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 could be overcome swiftly, presumably in time for a summit of alliance leaders on the end of next month.

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no purpose to believe Turkey’s considerations can't be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s top diplomat stated Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara might help their membership.

“The United States totally supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be assured that both will soon be NATO members,” Blinken mentioned. “We sit up for having the ability to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto said his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their considerations in current days and stated these discussions would proceed with an eye toward resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid on the finish of June.

“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto stated. “We think that these issues can 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 functions to hitch NATO final week. The transfer represents one of many greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s security map.

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

Earlier Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s considerations, like info on terror teams, during their visit to Turkey this week. He stated Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

Cavusoglu said “an approach of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we're buddies and allies’ would not be right.” He insisted that “these international locations need to take concrete steps.”

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

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it said was “termination of political help 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 demands also known as for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and international cooperation towards terrorism.

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

“There is no doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance to be able to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

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