United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto (The Greens) met in Washington on Friday to discuss Finland’s NATO membership, which has been halted by Turkey’s security concerns.
Speaking at the Foreign Ministry’s Benjamin Franklin room, Blinken expressed strong US support for Finland’s and Sweden’s membership in NATO. He also added that there was still a strong consensus on the accession of both Nordic countries to the Alliance, despite opposition from Turkey.
"The United States fully supports the accession of Finland and Sweden to the Alliance, and I remain confident that both countries will soon be allies of NATO." Blinken told reporters.
The war in Ukraine and the security of Europe as a whole were also on the list of discussions between the two top diplomats.
Haavisto emphasized that talks with Turkey are ongoing. The aim is to resolve Turkey’s concerns at the NATO summit in Madrid on 29 June.
"We hope that we will continue our constructive dialogue with the Member States and that we are ready to continue our dialogue with Turkey. We take the concerns of each Member State seriously," Haavisto repeated.
Haavisto understood Turkey’s reservations and said that Finland would support them in branding the PKK, the Kurdish Workers’ Party, as a terrorist group.
"The PKK is an organization banned in Finland, we are part of the solutions in the European Union that has listed the PKK as a terrorist organization, and in Sweden," Haavisto clarified.
Haavisto said that Finland and Sweden have an open dialogue with Turkey. This week, the Finnish and Swedish delegations traveled to Turkey to discuss alliance membership.
The next step in the processing of Finnish and Swedish NATO applications is its consideration by the NATO Council. The candidate countries then issue a letter of intent, to which the Secretary General of NATO responds. Thereafter, the Member States sign the Accession Protocol before each country ratifies the accession of the new members.
"We hope that our membership will be ratified quickly as soon as the accession protocol is signed," Haavisto said.
Source: The Nordic Page