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

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Friday he’s confident Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden becoming a member of NATO could be overcome swiftly, probably 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 stated the U.S. has no motive to consider Turkey’s considerations cannot be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s prime diplomat stated Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara might assist their membership.

“America totally supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I continue to be assured that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We look ahead to being able to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

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

“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto stated. “We think that these issues may 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 last week. The move represents one of many largest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s security map.

The international locations’ membership bids require assist from all 30 present NATO international locations, however Turkey, which instructions the second-largest military in the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged assist for Kurdish militants whom Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons gross sales to Turkey.

Earlier Friday, Turkish International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s considerations, like information on terror groups, during their visit to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

Cavusoglu stated “an strategy of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we are associates and allies’ would not be correct.” He insisted that “these countries have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s safety considerations but ... everybody also wants to grasp Turkey’s official safety considerations.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including 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 against Turkey and international cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback came at a news convention with the visiting overseas ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed strong 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 as a way to make it stronger,” Polish International Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

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