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

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated Friday he’s confident Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden becoming a member of NATO could be overcome swiftly, presumably in time for a summit of alliance leaders on the finish of next month.

At a information conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no purpose to believe Turkey’s considerations cannot be addressed. His feedback got here after Turkey’s prime diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara might support their membership.

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

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

“We agreed to continue to these talks,” Haavisto stated. “We think that these problems could be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some outcomes could be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written purposes to affix NATO last week. The transfer represents one of many greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and will rewrite Europe’s security map.

The nations’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO international locations, but Turkey, which commands the second-largest military in 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 data on terror groups, throughout their visit to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting particular answers.

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

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s security concerns but ... everybody also wants to know Turkey’s legit security concerns.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it mentioned was “termination of political assist 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 calls for also referred to as for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a information convention with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed robust help 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 as a way to make it stronger,” Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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