US: Turkey’s NATO issues with Sweden, Finland will 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 on the end of next month.

At a information conference in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no cause to consider Turkey’s considerations can't be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s high diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara may assist their membership.

“The US fully supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be confident that each will soon be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We stay up for 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 stated these discussions would proceed with a watch 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 might be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some outcomes may very well be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written purposes to affix NATO last week. The transfer represents one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s security map.

The international locations’ membership bids require support from all 30 current NATO international locations, but Turkey, which commands 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 sales to Turkey.

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

Cavusoglu stated “an strategy of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we are friends 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 issues but ... everyone also needs to understand Turkey’s reputable security considerations.”

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

The demands also called for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and world cooperation towards terrorism.

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

“There isn't any 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 defense and our security.”

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