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

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

At a information convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no reason to believe Turkey’s issues can't be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s top diplomat said Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara may support 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 stay up for having the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto said his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their considerations in recent days and stated those discussions would proceed with a watch towards resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid on the end of June.

“We agreed to proceed to those talks,” Haavisto said. “We expect that these problems will be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some outcomes might be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written functions to join NATO final week. The transfer represents one of the greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s security map.

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

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

Cavusoglu stated “an approach of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we're friends and allies’ would not be correct.” He insisted that “these countries have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s security considerations however ... everybody also needs to understand Turkey’s reputable security considerations.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it mentioned was “termination of political assist 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 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 information conference with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed strong help for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There is no doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance so as to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

___

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