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

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 finish of subsequent month.

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no motive to believe Turkey’s issues cannot be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s high diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara might help their membership.

“The United States absolutely helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I continue to be confident that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We look ahead to with the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

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

“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto stated. “We predict that these issues can 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 purposes to hitch NATO last week. The move 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 assist 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 gross sales to Turkey.

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

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

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s safety concerns however ... everyone also needs to understand Turkey’s respectable security concerns.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it said was “termination of political support for terrorism,” an “elimination of the source of terrorism financing,” and the “cessation of arms help” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.

The demands also called for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and world cooperation towards terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback came at a news convention with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed sturdy 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 to be able to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

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