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The Alliance must have a clear vision to meet new security challenges and must commit to the support of its members.
Turkey has been a strong ally of NATO since it joined the alliance in 1952. We have always been at the forefront of meeting the challenges of our common security. Participating in important missions around the world and organizing NATO’s strategic assets on our ground are a testament to our strong commitment to the alliance. Turkey has taken strong leadership roles in NATO missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries.
We see NATO as essential to the security of our nation and the peace of our region. As we ensure that we contribute to the highest level of NATO activities, we also make large investments in our national defense as a strategic priority. Our national defense spending is close to the target of 2 percent of NATO’s GDP, more than most alliance members spend. These investments have increased our capacity for national defense in recent years and contributed to the overall strength of the NATO alliance.
In the last decade, the time has come for NATO to update its strategic concept in the face of changing regional security dynamics. NATO’s new strategic vision needs to be broad enough in recent years given the growing size of the alliance. However, it must be clear and purposeful. With the increasing use of hybrid warfare capabilities, the challenges facing our alliance are more complex than ever. At the same time, preparing NATO for this new era is within our power.
A new concept should create mechanisms to address the differences between the various NATO allies in a number of areas. It also needs to recognize the need to align national priorities with those of alliances as regional and global dynamics change rapidly in recent years, not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic. We have different national policies such as international terrorism, migration, human smuggling, cyber threats, and so on.
It is clear that we will not take a good look at all the issues. However, NATO’s priority must be to achieve a full alliance understanding for a unified response. Our alliance should not focus on identifying common enemies, but should focus on a common goal that meets the national interests of all.
Understanding all forms of terrorism, including far-right terrorism and Islamophobic attacks, and agreeing on a strategy to deal with this must be one of the top priorities.
We also need to develop a more comprehensive concept of security to include human security, prevent humanitarian disasters, and deal with asymmetric attacks on our nations.
Turkey is willing to pay its share to ensure the collective security of our alliance. The burden-sharing should not be limited to military budgets and contributions to NATO. It must also lead to tackling the refugee crisis in our region. As a country with more than four million refugees, we hope to have a more constructive view of our allies and be willing to pay a reasonable fee to meet this historic challenge.
In recent years we have received excessive criticism of national security requirements and strategic priorities. We support constructive exchanges on issues related to our collective security. In our view, dialogue is always the key to resolving differences between Member States. As an example of this approach, we have offered to organize an international conference on conflict resolution in the Eastern Mediterranean.
However, it cannot be expected that Turkey will undermine its national security and sovereignty in response to unreasonable demands and perceptions of some member states that Turkey has been facing regional unrest for ten years.
After facing the threat of terrorism and regional instability, Turkey is able and able to ensure its national security. However, we regret to mention that the support provided by our NATO allies on these fronts has been less than exemplary. We mention this in order to highlight the already well-publicized frictions, to emphasize the need for better NATO solidarity, if we are to prepare for the new threats that are emerging.
The pandemic has taught us that the challenges of the world cannot be met without strong international cooperation. NATO is a great example of this cooperation mechanism and past achievements cannot be overstated. However, just as we pledged to defend many decades ago through a historic pact, we must be prepared to defend ourselves against common threats in the future.
To achieve a more secure future, our alliance must use the national capabilities of each nation while presenting an integrated framework that addresses regional and global change. NATO can be more effective in the coming years by recognizing the national priorities of member states and ensuring strong support in real needs. Turkey has always been and is ready to fulfill its mission.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the attitude of the Al Jazeera editorial.
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