The United States would welcome the cooperation between Turkey and Russia in the fight against Daesh terrorist group, the US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said after meeting between Presidents Putin and Erdogan in St. Petersburg. However, "the problem" is that during this meeting, which was the first one since crisis in bilateral relations started, Russian and Turkish leaders agreed not only on the possibility of joint fight against terrorism, but also announced their intention to restore cooperation in all areas. It caused concern of many people in the West. For example, Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders has suggested to discuss the situation with rapprochement between Russia and Turkey on the level of the EU and NATO.
Didier Reynders
The head of CIS Countries Department of the Institute of Political Studies, Alexei Bychkov, believes that Turkey won't return to previous format of cooperation with NATO and the EU: "Erdogan is a pretty decisive person, and he never forgets insults. Changes in relationship with the EU, in particular with Germany, where attacks on Erdogan clearly happened, will definitely occur. If Erdogan will be able to normalize the situation in Turkey and retain his power with the help of Russia and Iran, then soon we will see major changes, concerning not only economic relations with Russia, but Turkey's entire foreign policy vector."
Meanwhile, Bychkov, just like many experts, was impressed by President Putin's diplomatic marathon on August 8-10, when he managed to hold talks with Presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Iran and Turkey.
"This marathon has several purposes. The main geopolitical purpose is to build and expand cooperation within the SCO, bring Russia back to the Asia-Pacific market, which Soviet Union used very efficiently and productively. After all, recently Putin also held meetings with Indian Prime Minister and President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. In other words, Russia enters the geopolitical plane of not only Middle East and the Caucasus, but also the entire Asia-Pacific region. It's like it solves a puzzle on the background of geopolitical crisis in the world, while being supported by successful actions of Russian Aerospace Forces in Syria."
According to Bychkov, the second objective is to divide influence in the hydrocarbons market: "It is a return of Russia and Iran, which recently regained the ability to export oil, after the sanctions against it were lifted. It is a return to the markets of China, Japan, the Asia-Pacific region, where there is a fight between OPEC members and countries that are not part of it. Saudi Arabia also tries to regain its position in the Chinese oil market, it even lowered oil prices, something it hasn't done for 10 years."
The expert pointed out that Baku summit was the first step in turning Azerbaijan into the center of consolidation of regional importance: "Baku is now becoming the center of consolidation of not only those countries that participated in the summit, but also countries like India and Pakistan, who were in favor of joining the SCO, as well as Kazakhstan. So we are talking about building a new global union, not just economical, but also political."
