By Janet Ekstract, ISTANBUL – Turkiye’s role as a key player in Europe’s security cannot be overlooked. As Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan underscored, Turkiye has a pivotal role to play in European defense and security. Fidan added that the EU’s deterrent and sustainable security is “only possible” with Turkiye. Fidan made the comments on April 3 in a joint press conference in Ankara with Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman. As Fidan explained: “The issue of Europe’s security cannot be reduced solely to the war in Ukraine. The topic of Europe’s security architecture must be addressed from a long-term and strategic perspective. In this context, a sustainable and deterrent security architecture is only possible with Turkiye’s participation.” Fidan emphasized that Turkiye was working on bolstering mutual investments with Croatia and bilateral cooperation in the defense industry between the two nations. Both Turkiye and Croatia are cooperating in the areas of energy and have pointed out that Croatia’s energy terminal on Krk Island is of the utmost strategic significance for Europe’s energy security. Fidan said that Turkiye aims to see Croatia contribute even more to EU energy security through investments by companies operating in the renewable energy sector.
Meanwhile, on April 3-4 in Brussels the EU convened an emergency defense summit that focused on bolstering the 32-member alliance’s defense spending and making sure that Ukraine will have all the funding it needs to continue its fight against Russian aggression. Fidan had highlighted Turkiye’s position on negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to end the war by reiterating that Turkish officials are ready to contribute to initiatives based on dialogue and diplomacy and that Turkiye already took steps toward this end. Additionally, Turkiye said it keeps in close contact and dialogue with Croatia for stability in the Balkans and that both countries are “important partners for regional peace and stability. As Fidan added: “With the regional ownership approach, we established the trilateral consultation mechanism with Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina In the same spirit, our cooperation with Croatia continues within the framework of the South East European Cooperation Process.”
