Greece must confront developments in US-Turkish relations with “strategic composure” and shape a long-term national strategy in the face of geopolitical realignments, stressed the Former Vice President of the government and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Evangelos Venizelos in the context of the Athens Defence Conference organized by the Delphi Economic Forum, in cooperation with the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP).
Mr. Venizelos pointed out that the positive stance of Donald Trump toward the Turkish President does not come as a surprise. “President Trump has expressed his sympathy for Erdogan. It is logical for the United States to want Turkey within the Western security system. We must deal with these things with strategic composure”, he said.
Referring back to the accession of Greece and Turkey to NATO in 1952, he noted that at that time the narrative of the common deterrence of the Soviet threat had been shaped, despite the different starting points of the two countries after World War II. “We must see whether the narrative of 1952 still applies”, he said, observing that the dominant position of the US in the Alliance remains evident. “I know how the European members of NATO behave when the American President is present. One can understand it even choreographically, scenographically. The position of the US is dominant”.
Mr. Venizelos argued that Greece must not fall “into the sin of petty grandiosity”, noting that in Europe there are countries, such as France and Britain, that possess nuclear weapons and a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Referring to Greek-Turkish relations, he stressed that after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 Greece has been facing a permanent security problem. “We consider that the threat has been articulated by Turkey, and there is also the casus belli”, he said, pointing out that this reality constitutes a peculiarity of Greece within NATO. “Our problem is that, considering the threat to be Turkish, we constitute a peculiarity within NATO. It is not easy to change the perception of who the enemy and the threat are”.
Referring to developments ahead of the NATO Summit, he predicted that European countries will once again come under pressure to assume a greater burden for their defense and security. “European leaders will face the same pressure. The US has signaled, already since the Biden period, that it is turning its interest to the Pacific”, he said.
At the same time, he pointed out that Greece already significantly exceeds the defense spending target as a percentage of GDP, but from a different starting point than many other European countries. “We exceed it while keeping our gaze fixed on Turkey”, he said, wondering whether there is truly a unified European perception toward Russia and China.
Mr. Venizelos also dwelt on the importance of maintaining control of Greek-Turkish relations by the two countries themselves. “The pace of Greek-Turkish relations must be controlled by Greece and Turkey, no third party”, he said.
He placed particular emphasis on the need to shape a long-term national strategy. “It does not matter so much what will happen at the NATO Summit. What matters greatly is that we have here an internal front that allows the country to have a foreign policy”. As he noted, Greece needs to broaden its horizon and acquire a substantive public dialogue on foreign policy and security policy.
He recalled that the post-junta period built a broad cross-party consensus on foreign policy issues, “it was built by Konstantinos Karamanlis and continued by Andreas Papandreou”, while estimating, however, that now a substantive public dialogue on national strategy is absent.
In closing, he warned about the rise of populism also in foreign policy issues. “Populism flourishes everywhere. It flourishes in economic policy but also in foreign policy. There is also cheap national populism”, he said, referring to the distinction by Max Weber between “ethic of responsibility” and “ethic of conviction”.