Monday, 4 October 2010Journal of Turkish Weekly conducted and interview with MP Giorgio La Malfa, Former Minister of European Affairs of Italy, on NATO's Strategic Concept and relations with Iran and Russia.
Q: What should be the key areas for NATO in terms of new Strategic Concept?
A: I think it would be very important if the new strategic concepts could play down the role of the nuclear weapons. To the level that nuclear weapons will be used only against nuclear countries or countries which are not a part of nuclear proliferation treaty. NATO would do well in saying something like "reducing the scope of nuclear weapons". This would be very significant move.
Q: What can be NATO's role in Iranian issue?
A: The main actor in Iranian issue is not NATO. The main actor(s) are P5+1 (Russia, China, U.S and others). Iranian issue should not be seen as a purely military issue since it has political aspects as well. The main problem of Iranian issue is that we do not surely know whether Iran is trying to acquire nuclear weapons or just doing that for prestige. The difficulty is to engage Iran in a meaningful discussion.
Q: How do you evaluate Turkey's decision on taking part on Iranian issue?
A: I found the decision by Turkey to sign a document on Iranian nuclear program was not a bad move. It could help bringing Iran into discussion. However it is not clear whether it will be successful. There is really very confusing picture coming out of Iran nowadays. Turkey may play important role in Middle East. However Iran makes it very difficult since they are coming out with statements which are unacceptable.
Q: How do you evaluate NATO's relations with Russia?
A: I hope that on the part of the new concept there will be a courageous move to open up new relations with Russia starting by re-opening the tables which were suspended after the Georgian war in August 2008. Trying to engage Russia in wider sense is vitally important. I do not think Russia possesses threat.
Unless there is a strong agreement between US and Russia mainly on reduction of nuclear weapons, we are going to see proliferations of weapons. In order to implement the regime on non-proliferation, the first five nuclear powers have to give precise indication that they want to reduce and they are reducing the number of their nuclear weapons. This also should be encouraging to the other states. |
Monday, 4 October 2010
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