US: Turkey’s NATO issues with Sweden, Finland can be fastened

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

At a information conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no motive to consider Turkey’s concerns cannot be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s prime diplomat said Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara may support their membership.

“The US absolutely helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be assured that both will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We stay up for being able to call 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 mentioned those discussions would proceed with a watch toward resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid at the finish of June.

“We agreed to proceed to these talks,” Haavisto said. “We expect that these issues will be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some outcomes could be achieved before the NATO summit.”

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

The countries’ membership bids require help from all 30 current NATO countries, however Turkey, which commands the second-largest navy in the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged support for Kurdish militants whom Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons sales to Turkey.

Earlier Friday, Turkish Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s considerations, like information on terror groups, during their go to to Turkey this week. He stated Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

Cavusoglu said “an strategy of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we're mates and allies’ wouldn't be correct.” He insisted that “these international locations have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s security considerations however ... everybody also needs to grasp Turkey’s reliable security concerns.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it mentioned 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 additionally known as for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and world cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback got here at a information conference with the visiting overseas ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed robust help 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 with the intention to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

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