Sweden will join NATO by the Alliance summit on July 11-12 in Vilnius. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has no doubts regarding this outcome. This will require convince Turkey and Hungary to ratify this new enlargement.
“From everything I heard, including almost all of the Allies in the meetings we had today and yesterday (Tuesday and Wednesday), Sweden should join Finland as soon as possible. And I think with the upcoming leaders’ summit in Vilnius, I expect that process to be completed by then.“, assures the American diplomat during an exclusive interview granted to Euronews at the end of the meeting in Brussels of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of NATO.
Antony Blinken also believes that China should put pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine and to respect Ukrainian territorial integrity.
Washington moreover supports the approach of the European Commission towards Beijing. The institution’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, says she wants to focus on risk reduction rather than decoupling.
Regarding the growing tensions around Taiwan, the US Secretary of State clarified that the United States does not want a confrontation with China.
“We don’t want, we don’t seek conflict. We are not trying to contain China. On the contrary, we want to preserve peace, stability and create opportunities“, repeats Antony Blinken.
“Any disputes between Mainland China and Taiwan should be resolved peacefully. Neither party should do anything to disrupt the status quo, and should not take any unilateral action to do so.“, he adds.
Asked regarding a possible change in attitude regarding Taiwan, the head of American diplomacy underlines the importance of this region.
“We are concerned that China’s actions on Taiwan might cause a crisis that would affect every country in the world (…) 50% of the world’s commercial traffic passes through the Taiwan Strait every day, 70% of the semiconductors we we need for our smartphones, dishwashers and cars are made in Taiwan“, summarizes Antony Blinken.
“If a crisis were to arise as a result of China’s action, it would have terribly disruptive effects on the global economy.“.
