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

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

At a information conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no cause to believe Turkey’s issues cannot be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s high diplomat stated Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara could assist their membership.

“The United States fully helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I continue to be confident that both will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken mentioned. “We look forward to having the ability to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto said his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their concerns in latest days and said these discussions would continue with a watch toward resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid on the finish of June.

“We agreed to proceed to these talks,” Haavisto stated. “We think that these problems could be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results might be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written functions to affix NATO final week. The transfer represents one of the largest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s battle in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The international locations’ membership bids require assist 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 support for Kurdish militants whom Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons gross sales to Turkey.

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

Cavusoglu mentioned “an strategy of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we're pals and allies’ would not be right.” He insisted that “these countries must take concrete steps.”

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

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it said was “termination of political help for terrorism,” an “elimination of the source of terrorism financing,” and the “cessation of arms assist” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.

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

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a information convention with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed strong help for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

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

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

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