WASHINGTON (AP) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that he was confident that Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO could be overcome quickly, possibly in time for a summit of alliance leaders late next month.
At a press conference in Washington with the visit of Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the US has no reason to believe that Turkey’s concerns cannot be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s top diplomat said Finland and Sweden should take “concrete steps” before Ankara could support its accession.
“The United States fully supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance, and I remain confident that both will soon be members of NATO,” Blinken said. “We look forward to naming 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 said talks would continue with a view to resolving them ahead of the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June.
“We agreed to continue these talks,” Haavisto said. “We believe that the problems that Turkey has been raising can be solved. We hope that some results will be achieved before the NATO summit. “
Sweden and Finland submitted their written requests to join NATO last week. The move represents one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s war in Ukraine and could rewrite Europe’s security map.
Countries’ bids for membership require the support of the current 30 NATO countries, but Turkey, which commands the alliance’s second army, opposes it. He cited alleged support for Kurdish militants whom Turkey considered terrorists and restrictions on arms sales to Turkey.
Earlier on Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had received documents detailing Turkey’s concerns, such as information about terrorist groups, during his visit to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is waiting for specific answers.
Cavusoglu said that “an approach of ‘convincing Turkey in time anyway, we are friends and allies’ would not be right.” He insisted that “these countries must take concrete action.”
He added that “we understand the security concerns of Finland and Sweden, but … everyone must also understand the legitimate security concerns of Turkey.”
Turkey this week listed five “concrete guarantees” it called for in Sweden, including what it called “the end of political support for terrorism”, an “elimination of the source of terrorist financing” and a “cessation of terrorism.” “banned the PKK and a group of Syrian Kurdish militias affiliated to it.”
The demands also called for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global counter-terrorism cooperation.
Cavusoglu’s comments came at a press conference with visiting foreign ministers from NATO allies, Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed strong support for the offers from Finland and Sweden.
“There is no doubt that we need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance to make it stronger,” said Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau.
Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu agreed, saying his membership “would consolidate collective defense and our security.”
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