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

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

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no purpose to consider Turkey’s considerations can't be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s top diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara could assist their membership.

“America totally supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I continue to be assured that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We stay up for having the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto said his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their concerns in recent days and stated those discussions would proceed with a watch toward 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 problems will be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some results may very well be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written functions to hitch NATO final week. The transfer represents one of many biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s warfare 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 commands the second-largest army within the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged help for Kurdish militants whom Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons gross sales to Turkey.

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

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

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

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it stated 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 additionally known as for the lifting of arms sanctions in opposition to Turkey and world cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a information convention with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed robust support for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There isn't a doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance in an effort to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

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