Late November, outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo just finished his embarrassing “seven-nation trip”, especially one of the trips to Turkey, which embarrassed him. He was angry before the trip, and no Turkish government officials met him during the visit.
According to a report by the current affairs media Politician News Network (European version) on December 1, Pompeo had a fierce quarrel with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu during a video conference of NATO Foreign Ministers on the same day. The two sides exchanged and quarreled on various issues. Constantly.
After the quarrel, some participating members chose to support Pompeo, which made Turkey appear isolated within NATO. Some diplomats made speculative analysis, believing that Pompeo was deliberately creating contradictions and causing trouble for the incoming Biden administration in matters related to NATO.
According to the report, the video conference held on December 1 mainly focused on how NATO should adapt to the reform report “NATO 2030” in the next 10 years. French President Macron complained last year that NATO is experiencing “brain death” due to lack of strategic coordination and American leadership, and this report was written by some “experts” since then.
However, during the meeting, Pompeo and Chavusholu became the focus of the audience, and the two had a fierce quarrel.” Politician News Network said that the news was later confirmed by delegations from several NATO member states.
Pompeo reportedly slammed Turkey at the meeting, accusing the other party of increasing tensions with NATO allies in the Mediterranean region, and calling Turkey’s purchase of Russian-made S-400 anti-aircraft missiles as a “gift to Russia”.
On the other hand, Turkish Foreign Minister Çavušoğlu also did not show weakness and responded. He accused Pompeo of constantly calling European allies to let them “bollah” against Turkey. He also said that the blind choice of the United States to side with Greece in the regional conflict and the refusal to sell Patriot air defense systems were also wrong.
Chavushoğlu also mentioned that when Turkey was fighting with the Islamic State, the United States supported Kurdish forces in Syria; in the Naka region conflict, Turkey supported Azerbaijan militarily, but the United States and France chose to support Armenia to fight with them.
According to the report, after a fierce quarrel between the two sides, some allies chose to support Pompeo, while Turkey appeared to be isolated by the remaining 29 NATO members. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian condemned Turkey at the meeting and claimed that if Turkey followed Russia’s “aggressive interventionism”, cohesion within NATO would not be achieved.
This meeting is likely to be the last NATO foreign ministers’ meeting attended by Pompeo on behalf of the Trump administration. Regarding the quarrel between the United States and Turkey, some diplomats speculate that Pompeo is using the last opportunity to intensify tension and create obstacles and difficulties for the incoming Biden administration.
At another press conference, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg avoided the question of a fierce quarrel between Pompeo and Çavusioğlu. Instead, he said that NATO’s “conflict elimination mechanism” can ease the conflict between Greece and Turkey.
“We’ve seen that ‘conflict resolution mechanisms’ help reduce the risk of accidents.” However, Stoltenberg also admitted that the most fundamental problem has not been solved at present, which will depend on Germany’s mediation efforts and the political will of Greece and Turkey.
