NATO Summit and its consequences

New member states and new Secretary General

The third question was - the new NATO Secretary General. The rule is that nominated person has to be accepted by every NATO member. The most probable winner was Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Ministerm who had the support of all members but Turkey. It was obvious that their vote can be bought, and only the US had the power to solve this problem. The truth is that this was a great chance for Turkey, and Erdogan played his cards well


By TAMAS TORO
from Timisoara, ROMANIA


Like everybody expected the NATO Summit that took place at the beginning of April has brought many changes. President Obama's first major European tour ended. It was not a surprise that his visiting list included the Czech Republic and Turkey. It seems that a new regional power is born.

NATO enlargement

The Atlantic Alliance has fortified its position on the Balkans by giving membership to Albania and Croatia. It is commonly known that Albania is a "warm" place for criminal activity. Most of the European drug and human trafficking routs are controlled by the mafia, and most of the drugs brought to Europe, first enter Albania. In order for NATO to control this problem, offering membership for Albania was the best strategy, and besides, this will bring NATO closer to Kosovo. On the other hand for Albania the NATO membership is a crucial step to become EU members. For Croatia becoming NATO members was an important geopolitical victory. Croatia has no natural border with its feared neighbour Serbia, so with the membership they are assured.

NATO Summit

On 3rd and4th of April the NATO's 60th Anniversary Summit was held in Strasbourg. One of Summit's main questions was if the US can persuade the European powers to send more troops to Afghanistan. On the 4th of April the Europeans decided to deploy 5,000 troops to Afghanistan. Now there are two problems regarding the troops deployment: first of all, Obama expected more than 5,000 troops from the European NATO members. Secondly, these soldiers will stay in Afghanistan until August. After the Afghan elections are over they will be sent home. So basically Obama's plan to convince the European allies to send more troops failed, but in the US gave the feeling that it was a big victory. Besides the troop deployment, the NATO Afghanistan National Army Trust Fund was expanded with another $ 100 million (out of which Germany committed $ 57 million!!).

Another important chapter of the Summit was President Nicholas Sarkozy's decision to reintegrate France in NATO's integrated command structure. However France's move was not a surprising one, because at the Strategic Research Foundation's Conference in Paris, Sarkozy said that it is in Europe's and France's interest to get back in to the integrated command structure. France is a founding member of NATO, but in 1966 Charles de Gaulle withdraws France from NATO's command structure. France's move proves that the US-France relations are getting better than they were during the Bush administration. France is back to the game now.

A new Secretary General

The third question of the Summit was - the new NATO Secretary General. The rule is that nominated person has to be accepted by every NATO member. This was the point where the problems occurred. The most probable winner was Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister. Rasmussen had the support of every member, besides Turkey. Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan had not forgotten the rallying cartoons about Mohamed (it is about the cartoons which were drawn by a Danish, and Prime Minister Rasmussen never apologized), and the fact that Roj TV a Kurdish broadcaster is based in Denmark. Erdogan said that the Danish Prime Minister never apologized for the cartoons, so Turkey cannot support him, at least not for free. It was obvious that Turkey's vote can be bought, and only the US had the power to solve this problem. The truth is that this was a great chance for Turkey, and Erdogan played his cards well. He made it clear that he will vote Rasmussen, but in change the US has to guarantee the following:

1. Turkey's EU negotiations will progress
2. One of Rasmussen's deputies will be a Turk and Turkey will receive a senior position in NATO's military command
3. Rasmussen will make placatory statement at the Alliance of Civilizations Summit held in Istanbul, regarding his decision not to apologies for the cartoons.

It is obvious that Turkey's is vital for the Obama administration, otherwise Turkey would have not been in the position to pull the strings. This fact is also underlined by the US President's visit to Ankara on the 7th of April.

The resurgent Turkey

It is not a coincidence that one of Obama's first visits led to Ankara. Those who would not believed a few years ago that Turkey will be a major power, they can believe it now. It is obvious that Turkey's power is rising. Just take a look at the map. Its geopolitical location is excellent, it is between Europe, Eurasia and Africa. For the US, Turkey is the most important ally in the region. With Turkey on its side, the USA is close at the same time to the Caucasus and Iran. On the other hand, with America's support Ankara can become a major player in the region. And besides, they have a common goal which is to build the energy pipe line from Baku to Ceyhan, Turkey. This would be a great win for both of them, and a loss for Russia: Turkey with the pipe line crossing its territory has to be taken more seriously, and for the USA everything bad for Russia is good for them.

In the future we can expect that a new power will rise which - with the backing of the USA - will counterbalance Russia and Iran.


(Published: 10.05.2009.)