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

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

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no reason to imagine Turkey’s issues cannot be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s top diplomat stated Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara could assist their membership.

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

Haavisto mentioned his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their concerns in latest days and said these discussions would proceed with an eye fixed towards resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June.

“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We think that these problems might be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some results could be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

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

The countries’ membership bids require support from all 30 present NATO countries, however Turkey, which instructions the second-largest military in 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 said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s considerations, like info on terror teams, during their visit to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting particular answers.

Cavusoglu mentioned “an approach of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we are friends and allies’ wouldn't be appropriate.” He insisted that “these countries have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s security considerations but ... everyone also needs to know Turkey’s authentic security issues.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it mentioned was “termination of political help for terrorism,” an “elimination of the source 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 called for the lifting of arms sanctions in opposition to Turkey and international cooperation towards terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a information convention with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed sturdy help 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 to be able to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

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