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

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

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no motive to consider Turkey’s concerns can't be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s top diplomat said Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara may assist their membership.

“The USA totally helps Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be assured 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 country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their concerns in latest days and said these discussions would continue 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 stated. “We predict that these problems will be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results may very well be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

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

The international locations’ membership bids require support from all 30 present NATO international locations, however Turkey, which commands the second-largest army 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 Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s issues, like data on terror teams, throughout their visit to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

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

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s safety issues however ... everyone also needs to grasp Turkey’s official security considerations.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it stated 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 known as for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and international cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

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

“There isn't a doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance with the intention to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

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