WASHINGTON (AP) – US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Friday that he was confident that Turkey’s objections to Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO could be overcome quickly, probably in time for a summit of Allied leaders at the end of next month.
At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Peka Haavisto Blinken, he said the United States had no reason to believe that Turkey’s concerns could not be addressed. His comments came after Turkey’s top diplomat said Finland and Sweden would have to take “concrete steps” before Ankara could support their membership.
“The United States fully supports the accession of Finland and Sweden to the alliance, and I remain confident that both will soon become members of NATO,” Blinken said. “We look forward to calling Finland and Sweden our allies.
Haavisto said his country and Sweden have had “good talks” with Turks on their concerns in recent days, and said those discussions would continue with a view to resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid in late June.
“We have agreed to continue these negotiations,” Haavisto said. “We believe that these problems that Turkey is raising can be solved. We hope that some results can be achieved before the NATO summit.
Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO last week. This move represents one of the biggest geopolitical consequences of the Russian war in Ukraine and could rewrite the map of Europe’s security.
Countries’ candidacies require support from all 30 current NATO nations, but Turkey, which commands the alliance’s second-largest army, opposes them. He cited alleged support for Kurdish extremists, whom Turkey considers terrorists, and restrictions on arms sales to Turkey.
Earlier on Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said negotiating delegations from Finland and Sweden had received documents detailing Turkey’s concerns, such as information about terrorist groups, during a visit to Turkey this week. He said Ankara expects concrete answers.
Cavusoglu said “the approach” we will still convince Turkey in time, we are friends and allies “would not be right”. He insisted that “these countries must take concrete steps”.
He added that “we understand the security concerns of Finland and Sweden, but … everyone must also understand the legitimate security concerns of Turkey.”
This week, Turkey listed five “concrete guarantees” it requires from Sweden, including “ending political support for terrorism”, “eliminating the source of terrorist financing” and “ending arms support” to ban PKK and related groups of the Syrian Kurds.
The demands also call for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global co-operation against terrorism.
Cavusoglu’s comments came at a press conference with visiting Allied foreign ministers Poland and Romania, and both expressed strong support for the candidacies of Finland and Sweden.
“There is no doubt that we need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance in order to make it stronger,” said Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau.
Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu agreed, saying their membership would “consolidate collective defense and our security”.
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