EU dusts off Turkiye's membership bid in search of 'new security framework': Report

Trump's trade wars and attacks on European partners have sent Brussels scrambling in search of new partnerships  

News Desk  -  The Cradle

Turkiye's bid for full EU membership “is moving back into the realms of the possible” after years on ice, according to Bloomberg, which reports that US President Donald Trump's tumultuous foreign policy moves have left Brussels “rethinking” their alliances.

“As the Trump administration threatens European security, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte reportedly urged EU leaders to increase engagement with fellow alliance member Turkiye,” the New York-based publication said on 13 March.

A day earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Ankara could aid the EU “reverse its loss of power and influence” following a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“If the European Union wants to prevent or even reverse its loss of power and influence, it can only achieve this through Turkiye's full membership,” Erdogan said, emphasizing that “full EU membership remains our strategic goal.”

“We frequently discuss with our counterparts our desire to advance cooperation with the EU based on mutual benefit and respect,” the Turkish President added.

For his part, Tusk told reporters he reached a “historic breakthrough” with Erdogan as he tried to convince him to play a role in securing peace between Ukraine and Russia.

“I approached President Erdogan with an unequivocal proposal that Turkiye should take as much co-responsibility for the peace process as possible,” Tusk said.

Erdogan added, “We must bring about a just end to the war. We are ready to provide a place for peace talks and all possible assistance.”

European diplomats and analysts who spoke with Reuters said that Trump's attacks on Washington's historical partners have pushed Brussels to seek new security partnerships, with Turkiye emerging “as a key potential partner in restructuring European security.”

“European countries that thought they had the luxury of excluding Turkiye until today are now seeing that they cannot exclude Turkiye anymore,” Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat and director of the Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM), told the British news agency.

Nevertheless, Ulgen noted that the “fundamental question that will come before Turkiye is the issue of ties with Russia because the essence of Europe's security framework starts by viewing Russia as a threat.”

Turkiye has been a member of NATO since 1952 and has the second-largest army in the US-led militaristic alliance.