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

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated Friday he’s assured Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden joining NATO could be overcome swiftly, possibly in time for a summit of alliance leaders at 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 reason to believe Turkey’s considerations can't be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s high diplomat said Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara may help their membership.

“The USA totally helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be assured that both will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken mentioned. “We stay up for with the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto stated his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their considerations in current days and said those discussions would proceed with an eye fixed towards resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June.

“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We think that these issues may be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some results might be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

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

The countries’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO international locations, however Turkey, which instructions the second-largest navy within 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 Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s concerns, like information on terror groups, during their go to to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting particular solutions.

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

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s security concerns but ... everyone additionally wants to understand Turkey’s authentic safety issues.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including 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 demands also referred to as for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback got here at a news convention with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed sturdy 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 with a view to make it stronger,” Polish International Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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