Blinken: Confident Finland, Sweden will join NATO

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he is confident that Finland and Sweden applications to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will move forward despite objections from Turkey."Finland and Sweden are working directly with Turkey to address some of the concerns that it raised," said Blinken.

Pekka Haavisto, Foreign Minister of Finland said “we rely on NATO open door policy, which is also supported by Turkey. And we think that these problems can be solved, that which Turkey has been raising. And it's probably very important that some results could be achieved before the Madrid summit, which is an important moment for NATO and also for us as applicant countries in the end of June." 

Turkey’s foreign minister says Sweden and Finland must now take “concrete steps” to alleviate his country’s security concerns to overcome Ankara’s objections to their NATO membership bid. The countries’ membership bids require support from all NATO countries, but Turkey is objecting to them.