The US State Department bluntly stated that the remaining NATO members, i.e. Turkey and Hungary, should accept Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership as soon as possible.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that it is time for Turkey to ratify the applications of Finland and Sweden to join the defense alliance NATO.
The US State Department informed local time on Thursday that Foreign Minister Blinken has expressed his firm support to the foreign ministers of Finland and Sweden in phone conversations. Blinken had also said that the US considers it very important that the remaining member states accept the new members soon.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ned Price says in his published statements about the phone calls that Blinken has repeated that the United States supports the acceptance of Finland and Sweden as NATO members.
– Blinken expressed our firm belief that Finland and Sweden are ready to join the union, Price commented to the Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström and to the Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto calls made.
– The United States urges those member countries that have not yet ratified the membership of Finland and Sweden to do so quickly.
All other NATO member countries except Turkey and Hungary have accepted the applications of Finland and Sweden. Hungary has expressed that the ratification is a mere formality, which has been promised to take place at the beginning of February.
Turkey, on the other hand, has fought back and set several conditions for both Finland and Sweden to ratify the countries’ NATO membership.
The statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not mention Turkey by name, but the telephone conversations with the foreign ministers of Finland and Sweden took place just one day after the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met Blinken in Washington.
Turkey wants to buy F-16 fighter jets from the United States. The United States has made it clear that trade could be facilitated if Turkey ratified Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO memberships.
Source: AP
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