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US President Barack Obama pats Turkish President Abdullah G\u00fcl on the shoulder as he walks past during a NATO meeting. AA photo<\/p>\nANKARA – H\u00fcrriyet Daily News<\/p>\n
US President Barack Obama pats Turkish President Abdullah G\u00fcl on the shoulder as he walks past during a NATO meeting. AA photo<\/p>\n
Turkish officials expressed their satisfaction with the new Strategic Concept approved at a NATO summit in Lisbon over the weekend, yet the country is likely to be at the center of continued debate following the meeting.<\/p>\n
Turkey plays a major role in two key, and heated, subjects discussed at the Lisbon Summit: creating a shield against ballistic missiles and a formula for better-functioning relations between the alliance and the European Union.<\/p>\n
One of the few members of NATO that is not also a part of the EU, Turkey objected to singling out Iran as a threat to be thwarted by the missile shield. The alliance\u2019s decision not to mention Iran was seen in Ankara as a successful result to the Lisbon Summit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe alliance does not consider any country to be its adversary. However, no one should doubt NATO\u2019s resolve if the security of any of its members were to be threatened,\u201d the new concept read. Despite granting Turkey\u2019s request not to name Iran as the main source of a potential attack, NATO members\u2019 concerns about the country\u2019s controversial nuclear program were the primary reason for speeding up the missile-shield efforts.<\/p>\n
More on NATO summit<\/p>\n
Turkish, French presidents row over Iran at NATO summit<\/p>\n
NATO leaders tout plan to end Afghan war<\/p>\n
Diplomats cautioned that the text of the Strategic Concept was \u201conly highlighting the principles and calling on NATO to quickly ready necessary guidance covering technical details,\u201d but these have not yet been worked out.<\/p>\n
The NATO meeting also marked a breakthrough in relations with Russia, with President Dmitry Medvedev attending a summit with the alliance for the first time in two years and pronouncing himself happy with his welcome, Agence France-Presse reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cA period of very difficult, tense relations has been overcome,\u201d Medvedev said, promising that Moscow would study Europe\u2019s plans to design a joint missile defense system and consider taking part in its development.<\/p>\n
According to the joint communiqu\u00e9 issued Saturday after the completion of the summit, the North Atlantic Council will develop \u201cmissile defense consultation, command and control arrangements\u201d by the time NATO defense ministers meet in March 2011 and have created an action plan to implement the missile shield by June 2011.<\/p>\n
By clearly setting the timetable for political and technical preparations for the missile shield, the communiqu\u00e9 signals further negotiations within the alliance, and between Turkey and main powers of NATO.<\/p>\n
According to the initial plan, the missile shield is expected to function by 2012 after a consensus is reached on where the radars and other technical equipment will be deployed, how the system will be commanded and how it is going to be financed.<\/p>\n
\u201cTurkey was asking to be part of the command system especially on matters directly concerning Turkey,\u201d Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan has said.<\/p>\n
Ankara seeks to have NATO\u2019s \u0130zmir headquarters designated as the missile-defense command center instead of Germany\u2019s Ramstein base, as the United States has insisted. Turkey\u2019s good relations with countries such as Iran and Syria \u2013 both believed to be developing nuclear weapons \u2013 will help reduce the tension between the alliance and these countries, Ankara has argued.<\/p>\n
NATO had planned to close the \u0130zmir base as part of a restructuring program of its operational headquarters and command centers, but Turkish officials want it to remain open in order to retain Ankara\u2019s influence within the alliance.<\/p>\n
Ongoing discussions at NATO\u2019s Brussels headquarters additionally foresee Turkey as the venue for radar deployment and some Eastern and Central European countries as the venue for delivery systems of the anti-ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing is certain yet,\u201d a Turkish diplomat told the H\u00fcrriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Sunday, adding that the negotiations will continue. \u201cThe technical sphere of the issue is multidimensional. Setting aside political preferences, the technical requirements and defensive necessities will be much more important.\u201d<\/p>\n
NATO-EU relationship still vague<\/p>\n
The other key issue facing Turkey going into the Lisbon Summit was how to best formulate the cooperation between NATO and the European Union, which comprises 21 of the alliance\u2019s 28 members. Though the new Security Concept agreed to in Lisbon touched on this issue as an important matter, it did not provide much in the way of overcoming the ongoing stalemate. Noting that countries such as Turkey and Norway, both non-EU members of the alliance, had made significant contributions to address common security challenges, the concept advised: \u201cFor the strategic partnership between NATO and the EU, [these countries\u2019] fullest involvement in these efforts is essential.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Turkey seems to be satisfied with the use of the term \u201cfullest involvement,\u201d diplomats underscored that the current situation did not offer much to change the playing field. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is known to be working on the matter and is tasked with submitting a plan in April 2011.<\/p>\n
via Turkey unshielded from NATO debate – Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ANKARA – H\u00fcrriyet Daily News US President Barack Obama pats Turkish President Abdullah G\u00fcl on the shoulder as he walks past during a NATO meeting. AA photo Turkish officials expressed their satisfaction with the new Strategic Concept approved at a NATO summit in Lisbon over the weekend, yet the country is likely to be at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":26602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[4459],"class_list":["post-26600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-nato-summit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}