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

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

At a news convention in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no purpose to believe Turkey’s concerns cannot be addressed. His feedback came after Turkey’s top diplomat said Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara may support their membership.

“The US fully supports Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be assured that each will soon be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We stay up for being able to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto said his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their considerations in recent days and stated these discussions would continue with an eye toward resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid on the finish of June.

“We agreed to proceed to these talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We think that these problems can be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some outcomes may very well be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to affix NATO final week. The transfer represents one of the greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s security map.

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

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

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

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it mentioned was “termination of political support for terrorism,” an “elimination of the supply of terrorism financing,” and the “cessation of arms help” 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 against Turkey and world cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

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

“There isn't any doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance to be able to make it stronger,” Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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