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

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 may be overcome swiftly, possibly in time for a summit of alliance leaders at the end of subsequent month.

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no cause to believe Turkey’s concerns can't be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s top diplomat stated Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara may support their membership.

“The USA totally supports Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I proceed to be assured that both will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We look forward to having the ability to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto mentioned his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their issues in recent days and stated these discussions would continue with a watch towards resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June.

“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We think that these issues can be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some results might be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO final week. The move represents one of many largest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The international locations’ membership bids require assist from all 30 present NATO international locations, however Turkey, which instructions the second-largest army 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 documents detailing Turkey’s issues, like info on terror teams, throughout their visit to Turkey this week. He stated Ankara is awaiting particular solutions.

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

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s safety issues however ... everybody additionally needs to grasp Turkey’s legitimate safety considerations.”

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 source 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 additionally called for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and world cooperation towards terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a news conference with the visiting overseas ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed robust assist for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There isn't a doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance so as to make it stronger,” Polish International Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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