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

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

At a information conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no motive to imagine Turkey’s considerations can't be addressed. His feedback came after Turkey’s prime diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara could help their membership.

“The US absolutely supports Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I proceed to be assured that each will soon be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We look forward to with the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto said his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their concerns in latest days and said those discussions would continue with a watch towards resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June.

“We agreed to continue to these talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We predict that these problems may be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some outcomes could be achieved before the NATO summit.”

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

The international locations’ membership bids require help from all 30 present NATO international locations, but Turkey, which instructions the second-largest military within 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 International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s issues, like data on terror teams, during their visit to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting particular answers.

Cavusoglu said “an approach of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we are associates and allies’ wouldn't be appropriate.” He insisted that “these international locations must take concrete steps.”

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

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

The demands also referred to as for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and international cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a news conference with the visiting overseas 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 as a way to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

Romanian International 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 battle at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine