US: Turkey’s NATO issues with Sweden, Finland can be fastened

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday he’s confident Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden joining NATO might be overcome swiftly, presumably in time for a summit of alliance leaders at the end of next month.

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

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

Haavisto said his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their issues in current days and said 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 these talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We expect that these issues will be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some outcomes might be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

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

The international locations’ membership bids require help from all 30 current NATO international locations, however Turkey, which instructions 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 sales to Turkey.

Earlier Friday, Turkish International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s concerns, like information on terror teams, during their go to to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting particular answers.

Cavusoglu said “an strategy of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we're mates and allies’ would not be correct.” He insisted that “these international locations need to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s safety concerns however ... everybody additionally wants to know Turkey’s reliable safety considerations.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it mentioned was “termination of political support 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 additionally known as for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and international cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a news convention with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed strong support for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There isn't any doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance with a view 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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