The NATO chief’s “safe” solution will be found with Turkey to admit Sweden, Finland
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NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Wednesday that he was “sure” that the alliance would find a solution with Turkey and let Sweden and Finland into its flocks.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan aroused international frustration last month when he said he would block Stockholm and Helsinki from joining NATO over allegations that the Nordic countries host individuals he has considered “terrorists” because of their ties to Kurdish extremist groups.
Stoltenberg called Turkey an “important ally” and pointed to its involvement in the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq – although the fight against the Islamic extremist group in the Middle East also ends up at the heart of Ankara’s frustrations with NATO.
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Erdogan has accused Sweden and Finland, as well as top nations in NATO and the United States, of closing their eyes to “harassing” their claims of having endured members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The PKK has been designated a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.
But the group’s relationship with Western-backed forces affiliated with the PKK, which is fighting ISIS in Syria under the People’s Protection Forces (YPG), has teased Turkey.
“When they raise concerns, we sit down and examine how we can find a united way forward,” Stoltenberg told reporters from a briefing with Foreign Minister Antony Blinken on Wednesday. “I am in close contact with Turkish President Erdogan and with the leaders of Finland and Sweden, and I will convene senior officials from all three countries in Brussels in the coming days.”
The NATO chief did not say how the ongoing talks between the three nations have progressed since Erdogan first said he would block the expansion of NATO, but instead emphasized the importance of all member nations getting their security issues addressed.
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The United States and NATO allies have fought for Sweden’s and Finland’s bid to join the military alliance as an important step in strengthening security in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The war, which has lasted much longer than Western officials believe Russia would, has caused the biggest security crisis in Europe since World War II.
Putin has long seen NATO as a major threat to Russia and has claimed that its presence near its borders was a contributing factor to his illegal invasion of Ukraine.
“President Putin wanted less NATO. He gets more NATO, more troops and more NATO members,” Stoltenberg told reporters.
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The United States, Germany and other allies have in recent days promised to send even more security aid to Ukraine to help Kyiv defeat Russia.
“It’s not so much a question of discouraging Russia at this point because they have committed the aggression,” Blinken said. “What we are working to do … is to make sure that the Ukrainians have in hand what they need to defend themselves against this aggression, to repel it, to push it back. And as a result to make sure that they has the strongest possible hand at any negotiating table. “