US: Turkey’s NATO issues with Sweden, Finland will likely be fixed

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 could be overcome swiftly, possibly in time for a summit of alliance leaders on the finish of subsequent month.

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no purpose to imagine Turkey’s concerns can't be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s high diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara might support their membership.

“The US absolutely supports Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I proceed to be confident that each will soon be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We look ahead to having the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto stated his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their issues in recent days and stated these discussions would proceed with an eye fixed towards resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid at the finish of June.

“We agreed to proceed to those talks,” Haavisto stated. “We predict that these issues can be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results could be achieved before the NATO summit.”

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

The nations’ membership bids require assist from all 30 present NATO international locations, however Turkey, which commands the second-largest navy in 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 International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s issues, like information on terror groups, during their go to to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting particular solutions.

Cavusoglu said “an method of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we're buddies and allies’ wouldn't be appropriate.” He insisted that “these countries need to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s safety concerns however ... everyone also needs to know Turkey’s reputable security issues.”

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

The demands additionally known as for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and global cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback got here at a information conference with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed sturdy help for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There is no doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance to be able to make it stronger,” Polish International Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

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