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

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday he’s assured Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden joining NATO can 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 stated the U.S. has no cause to imagine Turkey’s considerations can't be addressed. His feedback came after Turkey’s top diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara may assist their membership.

“The United States fully helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be assured that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We look forward to being able to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto said his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their concerns in latest days and mentioned those discussions would continue with an eye toward resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June.

“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We expect that these problems can be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results may very well be achieved before the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to hitch NATO last week. The move represents one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s war in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The countries’ membership bids require help from all 30 current NATO nations, but Turkey, which commands the second-largest army within 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 Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s issues, like info on terror groups, during their go to to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

Cavusoglu said “an method of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we're friends and allies’ would not be correct.” He insisted that “these international locations must take concrete steps.”

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

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it stated 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 additionally known as for the lifting of arms sanctions towards Turkey and world cooperation against terrorism.

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

“There is no doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance with a purpose to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

___

Observe the AP’s protection of the battle at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine