US: Turkey’s NATO points with Sweden, Finland will likely be fastened

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

At a news convention in Washington with visiting Finnish International Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken stated the U.S. has no cause to consider Turkey’s concerns can't be addressed. His feedback came after Turkey’s top diplomat mentioned Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara may support their membership.

“The USA totally supports Finland and Sweden becoming a member of the alliance and I proceed to be assured that each will quickly be NATO members,” Blinken said. “We look ahead to having the ability to call Finland and Sweden our allies.”

Haavisto said his country and Sweden had held “good negotiations” with the Turks over their concerns in recent days and stated those discussions would continue with a watch towards resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June.

“We agreed to proceed to those talks,” Haavisto said. “We think that these issues could 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 purposes to join NATO last week. The move represents one of many largest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s safety map.

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

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

Cavusoglu stated “an method of ‘we’ll persuade Turkey in time anyway, we are 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 issues but ... everyone also wants to understand Turkey’s reliable safety issues.”

Turkey this week listed five “concrete assurances” it was demanding from Sweden, together with what it said was “termination of political support for terrorism,” an “elimination of the source of terrorism financing,” and the “cessation of arms assist” to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it.

The calls for also called for the lifting of arms sanctions in opposition to Turkey and world cooperation in opposition to terrorism.

Cavusoglu’s comments came at a information convention with the visiting international ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, each of whom expressed robust support for Finland and Sweden’s bids.

“There isn't any doubt that we do want the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance in order to make it stronger,” Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said.

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

___

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