US: Turkey’s NATO issues with Sweden, Finland will likely be mounted

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

At a information convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no motive to believe Turkey’s issues cannot be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s high diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara may assist their membership.

“The USA totally supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I continue to be assured that both will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken mentioned. “We look ahead to having the ability to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

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

“We agreed to proceed to these talks,” Haavisto stated. “We predict that these problems might 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 purposes to affix NATO last week. The move represents one of many greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The nations’ membership bids require support from all 30 current NATO countries, however Turkey, which instructions the second-largest navy within the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged assist for Kurdish militants whom Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons gross sales to Turkey.

Earlier Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s concerns, like info on terror groups, during their visit to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting particular answers.

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

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s safety issues but ... everybody also needs to grasp Turkey’s authentic safety concerns.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it mentioned was “termination of political assist 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 calls for also known as for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and world cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback got here at a news 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 is no such thing as a doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance with a purpose 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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