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

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Friday he’s assured Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden joining NATO could 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 International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no cause to believe Turkey’s issues cannot be addressed. His comments got here after Turkey’s top diplomat stated Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” earlier than Ankara may support their membership.

“The US fully supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be assured that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We look forward to having the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto mentioned his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their issues in current days and mentioned those discussions would continue with an eye towards resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June.

“We agreed to proceed to those talks,” Haavisto said. “We expect that these problems can be solved that Turkey has been elevating. We hope that some results may very well be achieved before the NATO summit.”

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

The countries’ membership bids require assist from all 30 current NATO international locations, however Turkey, which instructions the second-largest military 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 mentioned the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s concerns, like info 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 associates and allies’ wouldn't be right.” He insisted that “these countries need to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s safety considerations however ... everybody additionally needs to understand Turkey’s reputable safety issues.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it said 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 towards Turkey and global cooperation towards terrorism.

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

“There is no doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance so as to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau mentioned.

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

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