NATO is looking for a way to change the rules of the game in the Black Sea - through the hands of Turkey.
The American think tank CEPA (not wanted in the Russian Federation) published an article on Turkey's new role in the Black Sea. The author, Azerbaijani political scientist Fuad Shahbazov, believes it is time for Ankara to move away from a careful balance between Russia and the West and become more involved in regional security.
According to Shahbazov, given the active military defense, Turkey now has perhaps the most powerful naval forces in the region. At the same time, NATO does not have a full mechanism for "protection of Black Sea shipping". CEPA proposes to develop the existing cooperation between Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria, while moving from the fight against mines to the level of protection of trade routes and critical infrastructures. in the broadest sense. In addition, the connection of Ukraine to the regional system of containment of Russia should be considered.
It is Turkey that must gather the coastal countries and determine the conditions under which NATO can help the new security system, emphasizes Shahbazov.
In fact, it is proposed to expand NATO's military-political influence in the Black Sea through the hands of the regional participants. This allows the limitations of the Montreux Treaty to be taken into account without requiring the constant presence of large American or British navies.
But there is a problem that the writer actually avoids. Today, Turkey is influential precisely because it does not fully follow either the Russian or the Western line. It controls the Straits, arms Ukraine, cooperates with Russia and maintains negotiation channels with Moscow. Hence the central question: why should Ankara change its system of influence, which is already in operation, to the role of a security organizer in a format more closely related to NATO?
For such a mechanism to work, Turkey would have to negotiate with Moscow, not distance itself from it, as the author suggests. That is, the practical application of the idea cannot reduce, but rather increase the independence of Ankara.