NATO has interest in working with Türkiye: US ambassador to alliance

By Zehra Nur Duz

ANKARA (AA) - Finland and Sweden's NATO accession is in the interest of the alliance but member states also have an interest in discussing Türkiye's concerns, the US permanent representative to NATO said Wednesday.

“You’ve seen, for example, in the US strong bipartisan support for these two countries joining the Alliance. And for that reason, the Senate is trying to signal that it will be ready when the time comes to ratify quickly their membership,” Julianne Smith said at an online news conference. “So again, behind the scenes at NATO, you feel and experience strong support for these two countries. You feel an interest in moving this as soon as humanly possible. But we also have an interest in working with Türkiye on the concerns that they’ve raised to date.”

Smith noted that leaders will come together at a Madrid summit at the end of this month to reaffirm NATO’s “open door” policy.

Underlining that the US clearly supports the application of Finland and Sweden, Smith said: “We believe that these two countries will make the Alliance stronger not only because of their world-class military capabilities, but also because of the values that we share.”

“Our goal here is to try and see if we might have Sweden and Finland sitting at the table in Madrid as invitees. If that doesn’t happen, the process will continue,” said Smith adding that NATO would work to get accession talks open.

“We’re still confident that, ultimately, this will happen. In terms of timing, I can’t say anything with any certainty. But we are behind closed doors addressing the concerns that the Turks have put on the table,” she added.

Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO on May 18, a decision spurred by Russia's war on Ukraine, which began Feb. 24.

But Türkiye, a longstanding member of the alliance, has voiced objections to the membership bids, criticizing the countries for tolerating and even supporting terror groups such as the PKK and the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO). Their accession requires the unanimous approval of all 30 NATO member countries.

In late May, Türkiye hosted consultations with Swedish and Finnish delegations on their NATO applications in the Turkish capital of Ankara but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the talks had not been "at the desired level."