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

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Friday he’s confident Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden becoming a member of NATO will 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 stated the U.S. has no motive to imagine Turkey’s issues can't be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s prime diplomat said Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara might support their membership.

“The United States absolutely helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be confident that both will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We sit up for with 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 current days and stated these discussions would proceed with a watch towards resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid at the finish of June.

“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We think that these problems could be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some outcomes may very well be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to hitch NATO final week. The move represents one of the greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The nations’ membership bids require help from all 30 current NATO international locations, however Turkey, which instructions the second-largest military in the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged support 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 information on terror teams, during their visit to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting particular solutions.

Cavusoglu said “an strategy of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we're friends 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 ... everybody also wants to know Turkey’s legitimate safety considerations.”

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 assist” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.

The calls for additionally referred to as for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and world cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a information convention with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed robust assist 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 an effort to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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