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

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no reason to believe Turkey’s issues cannot be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s top diplomat stated Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara may support their membership.

“The USA totally helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I continue to be assured that both will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We stay up for having the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

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

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

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

The countries’ membership bids require help from all 30 present NATO countries, but Turkey, which commands the second-largest navy within the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged support 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 considerations, like info on terror teams, throughout their visit to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

Cavusoglu mentioned “an strategy of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we are pals and allies’ wouldn't be right.” He insisted that “these international locations have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s safety issues however ... everyone additionally wants to know Turkey’s legitimate security issues.”

Turkey this week listed five “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 calls for also referred to as for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and world cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a information conference with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed sturdy support for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There is no doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance so as to make it stronger,” Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

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