BY ERDAL SAGLAM
HURRIYET- This week`s meetings between the US and Russia have the potential to influence global politics and future power balances. Turkey is also involved in this equation, and this time should be followed very closely to avoid any policy missteps. According to the experts, US President Barack Obama saying Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin `has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new` actually defines the new relationship that he wants to establish with the Russian Federation.
In the wake of the crisis in globalization, the US is reviewing its understanding of international cooperation. Countries such as Russia should be fully integrated into the system as well, and harmonization with new global institutions and organizations should be provided both politically and economically so that globalization can be revised and improved. The rules of the new order haven`t been made yet. Maybe meetings will be held with countries like Russia, which will play very important roles (whether positive or negative) for the new order, and there will be efforts to establish organizations and institutions for this new order.
Obviously the US will try to maintain its dominant position in the new order and discuss possible concessions and gains related to this. In my opinion, it will be necessary to allow certain local policies, ones which wouldn`t endanger the system, in the process of establishing this new order, when countries like Russia ask for it. In this context, there will be social policy preferences in economics as well. The main issues in the US-Russia meetings which started yesterday are nuclear proliferation, reviewing projects in countries neighboring Russia under the US` security umbrella, and energy security.
Each of these issues concerns Turkey, but especially energy cooperation. Actually we`ve recently seen Turkey approaching Russia very seriously in terms of energy and geting involved in a change of policy. After the leaders` Sochi summit, both our foreign minister and energy minister visited Russia last week, where Russia`s push to build a nuclear power plant for Turkey was brought up. According to rumors, the Cabinet will get a token price break from Russia, which will build the plant. Furthermore, the energy minister said that we might join the South Stream pipeline project, an alternative to Nabucco, at Russia`s request. Other serious energy cooperation issues are bringing Russian oil to the Samsun-Ceyhan line, giving the contract of the western line (which ends next year) to a private company, and the future of the Blue Stream 2.
The US seems to be showing tolerance to Russia on subjects like selling Azeri gas to Russia, but we don`t know how far this will go, or how the rumors of strategic cooperation, which emerged with intensifying Turkish-Russian cooperation, will influence Turkey`s relations with the US. A country`s rulers must closely follow both national and international developments to promote the country`s interests and manage national and international relations accordingly. At such a critical time, could these relations be managed by provoking conflict among institutions? I hope the government knows what it`s doing in national and international politics, that its policies on the US and Western integration in politics and the economy haven`t changed, and that international crises won`t be added to the economic crisis."