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

At a information convention in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no reason to consider Turkey’s considerations cannot be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s prime diplomat said Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara could support their membership.

“The United States absolutely supports Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be confident that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken said. “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 issues in latest days and mentioned these discussions would proceed with a watch towards resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid at the finish of June.

“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We expect that these problems can 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 join NATO final week. The transfer represents one of many greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s war in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The nations’ membership bids require help from all 30 present NATO international locations, but Turkey, which commands 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 sales to Turkey.

Earlier Friday, Turkish Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s considerations, like info on terror groups, throughout their go to to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

Cavusoglu mentioned “an strategy of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we're friends and allies’ would not be correct.” He insisted that “these countries have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s safety considerations but ... everyone also wants to understand Turkey’s legit safety issues.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it mentioned was “termination of political help 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 additionally called for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and world cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback came at a information convention with the visiting overseas 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 need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance with a purpose to make it stronger,” Polish International Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

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