US: Turkey’s NATO points with Sweden, Finland might be mounted

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

At a news convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no purpose to consider Turkey’s considerations can't be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s prime diplomat said Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara could support their membership.

“The US totally supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I continue to be confident 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 nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their considerations in latest days and stated these discussions would proceed with an eye toward resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid on the end of June.

“We agreed to continue to those talks,” Haavisto said. “We think that these issues might be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some outcomes could possibly be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO final week. The move represents one of many greatest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s safety map.

The international locations’ membership bids require support from all 30 present NATO countries, but Turkey, which commands the second-largest navy in the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged support for Kurdish militants whom Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons sales to Turkey.

Earlier Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s concerns, like information on terror teams, during their visit to Turkey this week. He mentioned Ankara is awaiting particular solutions.

Cavusoglu stated “an strategy of ‘we’ll convince Turkey in time anyway, we're friends and allies’ would not be right.” He insisted that “these countries need to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s safety issues however ... everybody also needs to know Turkey’s authentic security issues.”

Turkey this week listed 5 “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it mentioned was “termination of political support for terrorism,” an “elimination of the source 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 called for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and international cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s feedback got here at a information convention with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed sturdy help for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There isn't any doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance with the intention to make it stronger,” Polish International Minister Zbigniew Rau stated.

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

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