Turkish interests must be considered at Ankara NATO summit: Munich Security Conference chief

The Munich Security Conference chairman said on Wednesday that Turkish interests must be taken into account during NATO’s upcoming summit in Türkiye’s capital Ankara in July.

Speaking at a panel at the 10th Black Sea and Balkans Security summit in the Romanian capital Bucharest, Wolfgang Ischinger underlined Türkiye’s hosting of the summit and highlighted its proximity to what he described as one of two “major challenges” to the alliance’s security, namely Iran.

Ischinger said that NATO countries must understand that it is essential that a strong message of “unity and determination and cohesion” will come from the summit in Ankara.

“The central question is: ‘Is the correct message going to be arriving in Moscow and correctly understood in Moscow?’ … This alliance is about security off and in Europe, and security in and off Europe depends to a significant extent on credible deterrence,” he expressed.

He argued that if they will be in “good shape” if they can repeat the “good, positive” performance of the alliance in last year’s NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands.

Ischinger went on to say that he thinks it is in their collective interest to make sure Türkiye will be happy with the summit and draw a conclusion of being a “proud member “of NATO as an alliance that is also present to protect it.

“So, in other words, let’s make sure that we take Turkish interests, in an appropriate manner, into account to make it a success for all of us, including the host country Türkiye. I think that is very important,” he added.

The conference chief also defined the current period in the alliance as “one of fundamental changes,” the last such period having occurred after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, citing the raising of members’ GDP commitment to defense spending from 2% to 5% and the effect of technological advances on military balance.

The two-day Black Sea and Balkans Security Forum, which began on Tuesday, brings together officials, experts, and representatives from academic and business circles. The event is organized by the New Strategy Center, a Romanian think tank founded in 2015. Anadolu is the global communications partner for the event.

The NATO summit in Ankara will take place on July 7-8, and will be the second NATO summit held in Türkiye, with the previous one held in Istanbul in 2004.

‘Highly symbolic’

Meanwhile, Sorin Ducaru, honorary chairman of the Scientific Council of the New Strategy Center, said at the same panel that he thinks it is “highly symbolic” that the upcoming NATO summit is being held in Türkiye.

He said that Türkiye is not only a country on NATO's eastern flank, but also "radiates" to the south and the Middle East. "From this point of view, it brings together all the interests."

Ducaru argued that NATO has addressed the issue of technological advances since 2000 through establishing an "emerging and disruptive technologies" department.

He further argued that they are living in an age of a "digitally enabled battlefield," adding: "Those who master faster this asymmetric edge of new technologies, they can make a difference." He went on to name Ukraine as an example in this context.

The chairman also touched on the issue of "burden-sharing" between the US and European countries in the alliance, saying this is an issue of money but there are two aspects, namely how these resources are spent and what kind of strategic shifts in the mindset of Europeans this means.

He said there has been a lot done in terms of crisis management, but "more has to be done ... not to be that dependent" on the US in matters such as air refueling and situational awareness.

"So, it's not just the volume of resources invested, but also the quality and the way these resources are perceived and employed for the achievement of the objectives," he added.