SE: Blinken says that he is convinced that Finland and Sweden will join NATO
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he is confident that Finland’s and Sweden’s applications to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will proceed despite objections from Turkey.
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“Finland and Sweden are working directly with Turkey to address some of the concerns it raised,” Blinken said.
“There is a very strong consensus in NATO for the adoption of Finland and Sweden, and I am convinced that we will work through this process quickly and that things will move forward with both countries.”
Blinken commented during a visit by Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on Friday.
This comes when Turkey’s foreign minister says that Sweden and Finland must now take “concrete steps” to alleviate their country’s security problems in order to overcome Ankara’s objections to their offer of NATO membership.
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Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that delegations from the two Nordic countries have returned home with Turkey’s demands after a visit this week and Ankara is waiting for their response.
The countries’ applications for membership require support from all NATO countries, but Turkey opposes them.
It has cited alleged support for Kurdish militants that Turkey is considering terrorists and restrictions on arms sales to Turkey.
“Turkey has raised some concerns regarding the PKK issue, terrorist issues which for the PKK are a banned organization in Finland,” Haavisto said.
“We are part of the solutions in the European Union where terrorist organizations are listed. It is the same in Sweden and so on. And these are the answers that we naturally give in this case to Turkey.”