Military-Political Aspects of Turkey’s Foreign Policy in South-East Europe

Over the past two years, Turkey has been significantly active in South-East Europe in the field of arms exports, as well as in military-diplomatic and military-technical contacts. These developments require a more careful study of the identified aspects and the degree of their influence on the regional juncture. The issue might be explored in several ways. It can provide additional understanding of the nature of relations between Turkey and NATO, as well as about intra-bloc interactions on the whole. It can be noted that the active development of bilateral ties is balanced by a certain weakening of the Turkish presence through stabilization missions in Bosnia and Kosovo, where the positions of European members of NATO are strengthening. At the same time, Ankara has found an opportunity to develop new multilateral formats, such as the trilateral Mine Countermeasures (MCM) Black Sea task force established in January 2024. Aspects of Turkish military build-up should also be taken into account. It can be assumed that Ankara is interested in stabilizing relations with European actors in the medium term in order to preserve common military-technical formats, which is required to complete the modernization of the Turkish army. To sum up, the examples provided in the article clearly illustrate how the concept of “Turkish strategic autonomy” and “risk hedging” is implemented at a practical level.