Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met in Washington. A press conference was held on Friday night.
27.5. 20:45 • Updated May 27 21:58
The United States strongly supports the speedy processing of Finland’s and Sweden’s applications for NATO membership, but issues with Turkey are cross-border.
United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinkenin The message was very similar to Finland’s previous NATO journey.
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Pekka Haavisto (Green,) met with Blinken in Washington, and in addition to NATO’s application for membership, Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine and wider European security were on the agenda.
– Finland and Sweden are working directly with Turkey to resolve the issues. We are also discussing with Turkey, I met with the Secretary of State in New York about a week ago and the discussions are continuing, Blinken said at the news conference.
– There is a very strong consensus within NATO to accept the membership of Finland and Sweden. I still have the impression that the process is moving fast.
Haavisto emphasized that discussions with Turkey are ongoing. The aim is to resolve Turkey’s concerns by the NATO summit. The current 30 member states will meet in Madrid on 29 June.
– We hope that we will continue the constructive discussion with the member states and that we are ready to continue the discussion on the issues with Turkey. We take the concerns of each member state seriously, Haavisto emphasized.
– We are in open and constructive dialogue with Turkey so that we can clarify everything. This is important.
Haavisto said that at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Berlin in mid-month, representatives of member states were literally “competing over who would be able to ratify memberships first”.
The next step in the process is for all NATO Council countries to sign the accession protocol.
– We hope that our membership will be ratified quickly, as soon as the accession protocol has been signed, Haavisto said.