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 becoming a member of NATO may be overcome swiftly, presumably in time for a summit of alliance leaders at the end of next month.

At a news convention in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no purpose to consider Turkey’s considerations can't be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s prime diplomat stated Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara might assist their membership.

“The US absolutely helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be confident that each will soon be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We stay up for being able to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto stated his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their issues in current days and stated these discussions would proceed with an eye fixed towards resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid at the finish of June.

“We agreed to proceed to these talks,” Haavisto said. “We expect that these problems may be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some outcomes could be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written purposes 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 support from all 30 current NATO international locations, however Turkey, which commands the second-largest navy within the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged help 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 considerations, like information on terror teams, during their go to to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

Cavusoglu stated “an approach of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we're associates and allies’ would not be right.” He insisted that “these international locations must take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s safety considerations however ... everyone also wants to understand Turkey’s legitimate safety concerns.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it said 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 known as for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and world cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a information conference with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed sturdy 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 with a purpose to make it stronger,” Polish International 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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