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

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 may be overcome swiftly, probably in time for a summit of alliance leaders at the finish of subsequent month.

At a information convention in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no cause to consider Turkey’s issues cannot be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s top diplomat said Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara might help their membership.

“The USA totally helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be confident that both will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken mentioned. “We look ahead to having the ability to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

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

“We agreed to proceed to these talks,” Haavisto stated. “We predict that these issues will be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results might be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO last week. The move represents one of many biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s war 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 navy in the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged assist for Kurdish militants whom Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons gross 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 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 convince Turkey in time anyway, we're friends and allies’ would not be appropriate.” He insisted that “these international locations have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s security considerations however ... everybody additionally needs to know Turkey’s legit safety concerns.”

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

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

Cavusoglu’s feedback came at a information convention with the visiting overseas ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed robust assist for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There isn't a doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance in an effort to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

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