No European security without Türkiye: Deputy FM

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has once again shown the importance of the cooperation between Türkiye and the European Union, a senior Turkish diplomat has said, citing security, energy, economy and migrationmanagement as four main areas on which Ankara and Brussels are intensely working together, Qazet.az reports.

“The war staged by Russia against Ukraine has highlighted the importance of Türkiye-EUrelations in four main areas,” Deputy Foreign Minister Ambassador Faruk Kaymakçı told Ankara bureau chiefs of the media outlets on Dec. 22. He cited these four areas as security, energy, economic recovery and migration management.

On security, Kaymakçı underlined “It has once again been exposed that there will be no European security without Türkiye; no EU security without Türkiye.” If Türkiye were be a member of the EU or would have been admitted into the EU’s common security and defense mechanisms that would bring about further coordination between NATO and the EU, the senior diplomat said, “That would even prevent the war between Russia and Ukraine. Why do I say this? Because the only way for the West to be an efficient deterring power is the togetherness of NATO and the EU. And Türkiye would be the country most contributing to this unity between the two organizations.”

He also informed that Greece and Greek Cyprus are preventing Türkiye’s participation into EU’s relevant security and defense policies.