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

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

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

“The United States totally supports Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I proceed to be confident that both will soon be NATO members,” Blinken mentioned. “We look forward to being able to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto stated his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their concerns in recent days and said those discussions would continue with an eye towards resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid on the end of June.

“We agreed to proceed to these talks,” Haavisto said. “We expect that these problems can be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some outcomes could possibly be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written functions to affix NATO final week. The transfer represents one of many biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s security map.

The nations’ membership bids require help from all 30 current NATO nations, but 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 Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s considerations, like info on terror teams, throughout their visit to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

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

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

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

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

Cavusoglu’s feedback came at a news convention with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed robust support 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 stated.

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

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