US: Turkey’s NATO points with Sweden, Finland will likely 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 will be overcome swiftly, probably in time for a summit of alliance leaders on the end of subsequent month.

At a information convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no motive to consider Turkey’s concerns cannot be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s prime diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara could help their membership.

“The US fully helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be assured that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We sit up for being able to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

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

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

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

The nations’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO nations, however 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 Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s concerns, like data on terror groups, throughout their go to to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

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

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

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 source 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 also referred to as for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback got here at a information convention with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed sturdy help for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There is no such thing as a doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance with a purpose to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

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