US: Turkey’s NATO points with Sweden, Finland might be mounted

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

At a information conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no motive to believe Turkey’s concerns cannot be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s high diplomat stated Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara might support their membership.

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

Haavisto mentioned his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their issues in recent days and mentioned those discussions would continue with a watch towards resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June.

“We agreed to proceed to those talks,” Haavisto said. “We expect that these problems might be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some outcomes might 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 war in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The countries’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO international locations, but Turkey, which commands the second-largest army 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 International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s issues, like info on terror groups, during their visit to Turkey this week. He stated Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

Cavusoglu said “an strategy of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we're pals and allies’ wouldn't be correct.” He insisted that “these countries have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s safety issues but ... everybody additionally wants to understand Turkey’s official security concerns.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it stated was “termination of political support for terrorism,” an “elimination of the source of terrorism financing,” and the “cessation of arms help” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.

The demands additionally known as for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and global cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a news convention with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed robust assist for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There is no such thing as a doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance to be able to make it stronger,” Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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Comply with the AP’s coverage of the struggle at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine