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

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

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no reason to imagine Turkey’s issues can't be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s prime diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara may help their membership.

“The USA totally supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I continue to be confident that each will soon be NATO members,” Blinken mentioned. “We look ahead to 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 issues in latest days and stated these discussions would proceed with a watch towards resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid on the finish of June.

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

Sweden and Finland submitted their written purposes to affix NATO last week. The transfer represents one of many largest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s battle in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s security map.

The international locations’ membership bids require help from all 30 present NATO international locations, but Turkey, which instructions the second-largest army within 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 International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s issues, like info on terror groups, throughout their go to to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

Cavusoglu stated “an approach of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we're friends and allies’ would not be right.” He insisted that “these international locations need to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s safety considerations but ... everyone additionally needs to grasp Turkey’s legitimate 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 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 also referred to as for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and world cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a news conference with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed robust support 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 as a way to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

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