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

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

At a news convention in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no motive to believe Turkey’s concerns can't be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s prime diplomat said Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara could assist their membership.

“The United States fully helps Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be assured that both will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken mentioned. “We stay up for having the ability to name Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto stated his nation and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their considerations in recent days and mentioned those discussions would proceed with a watch toward resolving them earlier than the NATO summit in Madrid on the finish of June.

“We agreed to proceed to those talks,” Haavisto mentioned. “We think that these issues might be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results could possibly be achieved before the NATO summit.”

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

The countries’ membership bids require help from all 30 current 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 gross sales to Turkey.

Earlier Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkey’s issues, like information on terror groups, during their go to to Turkey this week. He stated Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

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

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s security considerations but ... everybody also needs to know Turkey’s legit 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 support” 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 towards Turkey and world cooperation towards terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments got here at a information conference with the visiting overseas ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed strong support 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 a view to make it stronger,” Polish Overseas Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

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