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 joining NATO could 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 Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no purpose to consider Turkey’s issues cannot be addressed. His feedback came after Turkey’s high diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara could assist their membership.

“The United States absolutely supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I proceed to be confident that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We sit up for having the ability to call 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 stated 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 these talks,” Haavisto stated. “We expect that these problems can be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results could possibly be achieved earlier than the NATO summit.”

Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to hitch NATO last week. The move represents one of many largest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s security map.

The international locations’ membership bids require help from all 30 current NATO countries, however Turkey, which commands the second-largest army 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 International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given paperwork detailing Turkey’s concerns, like information on terror groups, throughout their visit to Turkey this week. He stated Ankara is awaiting specific solutions.

Cavusoglu stated “an method of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we are pals and allies’ wouldn't be correct.” He insisted that “these countries have to take concrete steps.”

He added that “we perceive Finland and Sweden’s safety considerations however ... everyone also needs to know Turkey’s authentic safety concerns.”

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 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 against terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a news convention with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed sturdy help for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There is no doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance in an effort to make it stronger,” Polish International Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

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