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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gave an interview with the editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy magazine, Ravi Agrawal, where he responded to a series of questions about the war in Ukraine and NATO’s response, China’s challenges to the West and NATO, and the texture and future of NATO in an ever-changing world, as well as opining on the ongoing disputes between Greece and Turkey in the south-eastern Mediterranean region.
On the issue of the rising tensions between Greece and Turkey and in response to a question regarding a letter sent to NATO by the Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias warning of a possible second war on European soil due to Turkish provocations, and whether Turkey was the ‘problem child of NATO unity’ Stoltenberg side-stepped the issue by saying: “Both Greece and Turkey are our valuable allies in NATO. They have been members of this Alliance for many years, for many decades, and they contribute to our common security in different ways, which we appreciate. There are some differences and some disagreements, and of course, our message is that these differences should be resolved through diplomatic means. It is important to avoid any military incidents or accidents, for example in the Aegean. That is why NATO has established a decompression mechanism, where Turkey and Greece participate to prevent and reduce the risk of incidents or accidents, as we saw before in the 1990s, a similar situation that led to very serious incidents in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean ‘.
The NATO Secretary General replied on the accession of Sweden and Finland to the alliance and Turkey’s negative stance: “For Turkey, in addition, we must realise that it is the NATO ally that has suffered the most from terrorist attacks and we take seriously the concerns expressed about these threats“, concluding: “That is why I welcome the historic decision of the 30 NATO allies to invite Finland and Sweden to join the Alliance, and that Turkey, Finland, and Sweden were able to agree in Madrid through a joint statement and multilateral agreement on how to take action to fight terrorism, which is important for all of us.”
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