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

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

At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Overseas Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken mentioned the U.S. has no cause to imagine Turkey’s considerations cannot be addressed. His feedback came after Turkey’s high diplomat said Finland and Sweden must take “concrete steps” before Ankara may help their membership.

“The US totally supports Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I continue to be confident that both will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken stated. “We look forward to having the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

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

“We agreed to continue to these talks,” Haavisto said. “We think that these problems could be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results might be achieved earlier than 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 battle in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s security map.

The countries’ membership bids require help from all 30 present NATO international locations, however Turkey, which instructions the second-largest army in 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 Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s issues, like info on terror groups, throughout their visit to Turkey this week. He stated Ankara is awaiting specific answers.

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

He added that “we understand Finland and Sweden’s security considerations but ... everybody also wants to grasp Turkey’s reliable safety considerations.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, including what it stated 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 demands additionally called for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and international cooperation against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a news conference with the visiting overseas ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed sturdy assist 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 in order 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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