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

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

At a information convention in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no cause to consider Turkey’s issues can't be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s prime diplomat stated Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara may help their membership.

“America fully helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I proceed to be confident that both will soon be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We look forward to with the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto mentioned his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their considerations in latest days and mentioned those discussions would proceed with a watch towards resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid on the end of June.

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

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

The international locations’ membership bids require help from all 30 current NATO nations, however Turkey, which commands the second-largest military within 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 Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s concerns, like data on terror groups, throughout their visit to Turkey this week. He stated Ankara is awaiting particular solutions.

Cavusoglu said “an approach of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we're associates and allies’ wouldn't be right.” He insisted that “these international locations must take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s safety concerns but ... everyone also needs to understand Turkey’s official safety concerns.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it mentioned 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 demands also known as for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and world cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback got here at a news convention with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed robust 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 Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the battle at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine