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

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

At a information convention in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no purpose to imagine Turkey’s concerns cannot be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s high diplomat said Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara may assist their membership.

“The USA absolutely supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I continue to be confident that each will soon be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We look ahead to with the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

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

“We agreed to proceed to those talks,” Haavisto stated. “We predict that these problems could 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 join NATO last week. The move represents one of many greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s war in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s security map.

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

Earlier Friday, Turkish Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s issues, like data on terror teams, throughout their visit to Turkey this week. He stated Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

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

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

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it stated was “termination of political assist for terrorism,” an “elimination of the supply of terrorism financing,” and the “cessation of arms help” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.

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

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

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

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

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