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

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

At a information conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no reason to consider Turkey’s issues can't be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s top diplomat said Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara could help their membership.

“The US fully helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I continue to be assured that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken mentioned. “We look forward to with the ability to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto stated his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their concerns in recent days and stated these discussions would proceed with a watch toward resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June.

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

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

The countries’ membership bids require support from all 30 present NATO nations, but Turkey, which instructions the second-largest military 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 Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s concerns, like info on terror teams, during their go to to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

Cavusoglu said “an approach of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we are friends and allies’ would not be right.” He insisted that “these nations have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s security issues however ... everyone additionally wants to know Turkey’s reliable security concerns.”

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

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a news convention with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed robust 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 International Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

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