NATO taps Turkey to counter Russian threat
Turkey recently hosted a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, who discussed efforts to transform the organization into a highly maneuverable body that can rapidly intervene in crises with the support of regional alliances.
Turkey’s popular resort Antalya hosted a NATO meeting May 13-14, as 28 allied foreign ministers and senior officials from 50 countries got together in an important step toward revitalizing Turkey’s membership with NATO.
The meeting offered clues to NATO-Russia relations and the regional dynamics of the Middle East. Naturally, the agenda items of the Antalya meeting will mostly determine the agenda of 2016 NATO heads of state summit in Warsaw.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said after the meeting that the group had assessed the problems of Eastern Europe, Afghanistan and the Middle East and covered how NATO partners and organizations such as the European Union could cope with these issues. "We are in a phase that will shape the Europe-Atlantic security on the way to the Warsaw summit," he said. "Our security environment has drastically changed. We look to the east and see Russia, whose aggressive approach to Ukraine has become more visible, and to the south, where we see more turbulence and extremism.”
The first issue of the day at Antalya was relations with Russia. It was clear that NATO perceives Russia as a threat because of its positions on Ukraine, Crimea and Eastern Europe. Judging from the statements of NATO officials at the meeting, NATO now sees Russia as hostile.
