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

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

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no reason to consider Turkey’s concerns can't be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s top diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara might help their membership.

“The USA fully helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be confident that both will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “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 recent days and mentioned these discussions would continue with an eye fixed towards resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid on the finish of June.

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

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

The countries’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO international locations, however 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 Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s issues, like data on terror teams, throughout their visit to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

Cavusoglu stated “an approach of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we're associates and allies’ wouldn't be appropriate.” He insisted that “these international locations have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s security considerations however ... everyone additionally needs to grasp Turkey’s legit security considerations.”

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

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

“There is no such thing as a doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance with a purpose to make it stronger,” Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

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