US: Turkey’s NATO points with Sweden, Finland can be fastened

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Friday he’s assured Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden becoming a member of NATO will be overcome swiftly, possibly 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 mentioned the U.S. has no cause to consider Turkey’s issues cannot be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s high diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara could assist their membership.

“America totally supports Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be assured that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We stay up for with the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto mentioned his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their considerations in current days and stated those discussions would proceed with an eye toward 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 issues will 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 will rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The nations’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO countries, but Turkey, which commands 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 sales to Turkey.

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

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

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s safety concerns however ... everyone also needs to know Turkey’s authentic safety considerations.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it said 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 also known as for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global cooperation against terrorism.

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

“There isn't any doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance with the intention to make it stronger,” Polish International Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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