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

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

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

“The US totally helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be assured that each will soon be NATO members,” Blinken mentioned. “We stay up for being able to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto mentioned his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their considerations in latest days and stated those discussions would proceed with an eye toward resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid on the finish of June.

“We agreed to continue to these talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We expect that these problems may 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 hitch NATO last week. The move represents one of the largest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The countries’ membership bids require help from all 30 current NATO nations, however 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 gross sales to Turkey.

Earlier Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s considerations, like info on terror teams, throughout their go to to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

Cavusoglu stated “an method of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we are 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 concerns but ... everybody additionally needs to grasp Turkey’s reliable safety concerns.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it stated was “termination of political support for terrorism,” an “elimination of the supply of terrorism financing,” and the “cessation of arms support” 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 against Turkey and world cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback came at a information conference with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed sturdy assist 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 Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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