Javan: Turkey is offered to be kicked out of NATO "for disobedience"Former national security adviser to the administration of former US President Donald Trump, a radical hawk of American politics, John Bolton suggested that Turkey would need to be excluded from NATO, the Iranian edition Javan reports.
So the former adviser proposes to "punish" Ankara for cooperation with Russia, the author of the article notes.
The former national security adviser to the administration of former US President Donald Trump, the odious representative of the "radical hawks" of American politics, John Bolton, in his article in the Telegraph newspaper, in a very sharp form suggested that if Turkey continues to cooperate with Russia against the background of the Ukrainian crisis, it should be deprived of membership in the the NATO bloc.
The former national security adviser to the former US president published an article in the well-known Telegraph publication, sustained in very harsh and even rather poisonous tones: in it, an American politician criticized some individual NATO states for "undermining solidarity" within the North Atlantic Alliance. Bolton called France, Germany and Turkey such states, imputing to them the unwillingness to "vigorously" support Ukraine in its confrontation with Russia. At the same time, Bolton noted that all NATO countries and the West as a whole need to "unite more closely" against Russia.
Bolton's article was published almost in the first issue of the famous British edition of the Telegraph on the second of January in the new year. According to Bolton in the article, 2023 could be a "turning point" for NATO and "fateful" for Ukraine. The West, he believes, must "now or never" confirm its determination to contain Russia. According to the politician, NATO countries had the opportunity to indirectly resist Russia on the battlefields, on the territory of Ukraine. The weakness of the NATO bloc, the differences in its ranks and the unwillingness of individual states to move in a "common system" will, according to Bolton, be immediately used by Russia, will allow Russian forces to win more and more victories during the special operation in Ukraine and move further into the Ukrainian territory.
Although, according to Bolton, several member states of the alliance do not show proper solidarity at once, there is also the "weakest link" among the member states of the bloc - Bolton recognized Turkey as such. It was Ankara, according to a former White House official, that set a "bad example" to other countries of the alliance and became a harbinger of a possible split or even the collapse of NATO as a whole. "Unity and determination are the main problems of the West at the moment and in this confrontation," Bolton said. Regarding Turkey's further membership in NATO.
Bolton wrote that it would be quite possible to remove Turkey from membership in the alliance under the pretext of fraud during the counting of votes in the upcoming presidential elections in the country. In this case, the former Trump adviser was referring to the likely re-election of the current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the upcoming elections and possible fraud with the counting of votes. Thus, Turkey's membership can be called into question, since the elections of the head of this state will be held with violations, the politician concludes. At the same time, Bolton complained that at the moment there are still some countries that continue trade and even military cooperation with Russia, and Turkey is among them. Such behavior should also be suppressed and "punished," Bolton believes.
It should be recalled that at the time of the outbreak of the military conflict in Ukraine at the end of February last year, Ankara refused to join the "sanctions war" unleashed by Western countries, under the leadership of the United States, against Russia. Turkey did not increase military supplies to Kiev, even though it has the second largest army in the NATO structure, moreover, it even slightly reduced military supplies. At least, Ankara's military supplies to Kiev are much more modest, in comparison with the rest of the Western countries and NATO, spending hundreds of billions of dollars. At the same time, Ankara has repeatedly stated that it does not want "big sacrifices" for any of the parties and wants peace to be established as soon as possible.
Regarding cooperation with Ukraine, Bolton has claims, however, not only to Turkey alone. According to him, the approach of Germany is also worthy of condemnation, which, with the coming to power of the new Chancellor Olaf Scholz in 2022, announced that it would reconsider its foreign policy. In particular, Scholz stated that he sees no need to increase the country's defense budget for the coming year, 2023. According to the German Chancellor, this requirement of NATO looks "doubtful". And the situation with the conflict in Ukraine has not changed Germany's attitude to this NATO demand, despite the fact that Olf Scholz has repeatedly made statements of unconditional "political support" for Ukraine since the outbreak of hostilities.
Although Berlin has stated that it will spend about $ 100 billion on the modernization of the fighter fleet and will replace its old aircraft in favor of the American F-35, these statements remain on paper and lie on the Federal Chancellor's desk, still waiting for his signature. According to Bolton, Berlin in words does not refuse to replace the old fighters with the F-35, but in fact intends to "drown" this project in bureaucratic delays and red tape.
Criticizing Germany's approach, the American "hawk politician", however, praised Japan, and welcomed Tokyo's statement on the need to increase its own military spending against the background of the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine. Tokyo intends to provide for an increase in military spending for the next five years. Bolton believes that these steps of the Land of the Rising Sun will contribute to the "globalization of the geography of NATO," and in the near future it will be possible to talk about the inclusion in the Alliance not only Japan, but also Australia, Israel and Singapore. However, regarding Bolton's statements, it can be noted that so far such forecasts are only wishful thinking. At the moment, NATO cannot resolve the issue of membership in the Alliance of two Scandinavian countries, Finland and Sweden, who have applied for more than six months ago — what can we say about expanding the geography of NATO at the expense of the countries of the Far East.
In addition to Germany, Mr. Bolton was sharply criticized by another country – an important member of the alliance, France, which in the last days of last year quite unexpectedly spoke out in favor of a diplomatic settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. Moreover, French President Emmanuel Macron put forward a rather seditious proposal that a diplomatic settlement should "consider the issue" of taking into account Russia's interests and pay attention to security guarantees for it. At the same time, however, we have to state that Russia raised the issue of its "security guarantees" about a year ago, and then NATO countries, including Germany and France, refused to consider Russian demands.
John Bolton, an American politician known for his not just militant, but also, according to even Western observers, extremist rhetoric regarding US foreign policy (in particular, he repeatedly spoke in favor of changing the political regime in Russia and other "undemocratic countries" competing with America), held the post of national security adviser at the administration of former US President Donald Trump in the period from 2018 to 2019. However, later they decided to replace him — probably, even Trump, who himself was known for his rather radical and extravagant views on American foreign policy, did not like his militant rhetoric. Previously, Bolton held various positions under several American presidents, mainly Republicans — George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, even worked in the administration of Ronald Reagan. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and for some time was the U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control.
Trump's former national security adviser recently hinted at the possibility of running for the White House in the upcoming 2024 presidential election. He even said that in the upcoming primaries he may be the only candidate able to bypass the former president, who has also repeatedly stated his likely return to big politics.