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U.S. And Turkey Officials TO Meet With NATO Expansion On The Agenda

May 18, 2022

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to meet Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in New York on Wednesday amid tensions among NATO members following Ankara’s objections to Finland and Sweden’s bids to join the Western military alliance.

Finland and Sweden formally applied to join the NATO alliance on Wednesday, setting in motion an accession process that is expected to take only a few weeks.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has voiced strong opposition to the bids and have said neither country should “bother” to send delegations to Ankara to try to persuade Turkey to approve their membership applications. NATO requires a consensus among all its current 30 members for the countries to be able to join.

Briefing the press on the forthcoming meeting, U.S. State Dept. spokesman Ned Price refused to comment on Erdogan’s comments, or on what the meeting might entail, but said “there is strong consensus there has been strong consensus for admitting Finland and Sweden” among NATO allies.

“We are confident we’ll be able to preserve that consensus,” Price said.









































































Source: CNBC
Image Source: Pixabay