US: Turkey’s NATO issues with Sweden, Finland will 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 will be overcome swiftly, possibly in time for a summit of alliance leaders at the finish of next month.

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no reason to consider Turkey’s considerations cannot be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s top diplomat said Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara might support their membership.

“The USA fully helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I continue to be assured that each will soon be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We look ahead to having the ability to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto said his nation 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 said. “We expect that these problems will be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some results might be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written purposes to affix NATO final week. The move represents one of the largest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s struggle in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The international locations’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO nations, but Turkey, which commands the second-largest military within 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 Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s concerns, like information on terror teams, during their visit to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting particular solutions.

Cavusoglu mentioned “an approach of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we're buddies and allies’ wouldn't be appropriate.” He insisted that “these nations must take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s security concerns however ... everybody also wants to know Turkey’s legit safety considerations.”

Turkey this week listed five “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 assist” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.

The calls for also known as for the lifting of arms sanctions in opposition to Turkey and world cooperation towards terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback came at a information conference 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 need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance in order to make it stronger,” Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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