Tag: Turkey-China Military Exercise

  • Turkey invites China over for wargames

    Turkey invites China over for wargames

    POSTED BY UNCLE JIMBO • [NOVEMBER 09, 2010]

    WTF? This is just another sign that we are facing some major changes in the strategic balance of power. China is on the move and so is Turkey, and the move is away from the US.

    The Turkish and Chinese air forces secretly participated in a military drill in Konya as part of the “Anatolian Eagle” war games, prompting a reaction from Washington, daily Taraf reported Thursday.

    It’s even better when you look at the route they took to get to the party.

    The Chinese fighters flew to Turkey, after stopping in Pakistan and Iran.

    Gee there is just a lovely chain of bad actors all in a row. Anyone who thinks the Chinese are not about expanding their reach ought to explain the blue water navy and 5th generation fighters they are building, or those troops in Kashmir, or the manufactured beef w/ Japan. They are in a very advantageous position vis a vis America and they are damn sure taking advantage of it.

    Time to deploy Hillary. Seriously turn her loose. Get Some!

    via BLACKFIVE: Turkey invites China over for wargames & chai.

  • Turkey Analysis: Is Ankara Now in a “Radical Axis of Evil”? (No.)

    Turkey Analysis: Is Ankara Now in a “Radical Axis of Evil”? (No.)

    Ali Yenidunya in EA Middle East and Turkey

    turkish airforce

    Our question for today: is Turkey still a pro-Western country looking forward to entering the European Union. Or has Ankara, “unfortunately, joined the radical axis formed led by Iran and supported by Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah”.

    Let’s start with a statement by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on 11 October:

    We also had wonderful, friendly relations with another country, with military cooperation, with full diplomatic relations, with visits by heads of state, with 400,000 Israeli visitors to that country. That country is called Turkey.

    What prompts Netanyahu to use the past tense? Is it because Turkey ejected Israel from a planned international air force exercise or because Turkey and Syria held joint military exercises in late April? Is it because Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told off Israeli Prseident Shimon Peres over Israel’s bloody war in Gaza in World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2009 or because Turkey did not stop the Freedom Flotilla which tried to break the Gaza siege?

    Is it because Turkey conditionally accepted NATO’s planned anti-missile system, saying that  it should not be presented as a defence against Iran? (On Friday, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said: “We do not perceive any threat from any neighbour countries and we do not think ouur neighbors form a threat to NATO.”) Or is it because of a joint Turkish-Chinese air-force exercise held two weeks ago?

    If I may offer an alternative to the “radical axis” thesis at this point….

    Ankara’s new foreign policy under the Justice and Development Party is not a revisionist manoeuvre but a reflection of its rising autonomy due amidst Washington’s decreasing power — from Afghanistan to Pakistan to Iraq to the rest of the Middle East — coupled with regional powers taking more initiative, economically and politically. Ankara, like its regional neighbours, wants to get benefit from this international conjuncture.

    And in order to become a stronger regional power, Ankara had to give up its discourse based on antagonism towards its neighbours (no need even to mention the need to solve its Armenian, Kurdish and ecumenical Greek Orthodox problems). The next step was to increase trade, boost bilateral relationships, build trust with old enemies, and raise your credibility with statements showing you are standing with the “weak”. Erdogan did this for Gazans and for Uighur Turks in northwest China. (How fast do we forget that Erdogan blamed a Chinese official of committing a “a near genocide” after the killing of 184 people last year in the conflict?)

    Some other facts: Turkey signed eight new trade agreements with China in early October, bypassing the US dollar for direct business between the Turkish Lira and Yuan. The goal is to achieve a trade volume of $100 billion in ten years from the current amount of $17 billion. As for the “existential threat” of Iran, the trade volume between Iran and Turkey was $1.4 billion in 2000 but it was $8 billion in 2008. (And of this, only $236 million in 2000 were Turkish exports; by 2007, the figure was $1.3 billion.) Turkey is now carrying out around 14 to 15% of its trade with its neighbours as opposed to 3 to 4% in the previous decade.

    As a champion of privatisation, Turkey is still a relatively “liberal” — perhaps neo-liberal — country, both economically and politically. This is still the same Ankara trying to be a part of European Union, following the adjustment of domestic law to the harmonization code of the EU in 2001 and in 2004. That is not to say Ankara is doing a great job fulfilling all of the democratic criteria to become a member state of the EU, but it has a pro-Western identity.

    I call my closing witness. Who would like to see a stronger Turkey (with reduced tension with Israel, of course) that has close relationships and is diplomatically and economically capable of holding negotiations with Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan?

    Talking to BBC’s “Record Europe”, US Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton said: “Turkey is becoming a greater global and regional power. Its economy is growing dramatically. They are extending to countries and try to be effective on their own as well as with us.”

    Increasingly autonomous? Yes. Radically evil? No.

    Article originally appeared on EA WorldView (http://www.enduringamerica.com/).

  • China and Turkey eye trade boost

    China and Turkey eye trade boost

    china erdogan

    Turkey and China intend to triple bilateral trade to $50bn within five years, the countries’ leaders have said after meetings aimed at strengthening political and business ties.

    At a joint news conference held in the Turkish capital Ankara, Tayyib Erdogan, the prime minister, said: “We set ourselves a timetable. We agreed to increase our trade volume to $50bn in 2015 and to $100bn in 2020.”

    Erdogan’s Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, hailed what he described as a new “strategic partnership”, saying he recognised Turkey’s “power and influence in the international community and its region”.

    Both countries – the fastest growing economies in the world – sealed agreements to co-operate in energy, transport and infrastructure.

    Erdogan said the two countries have also agreed to carry out their trade in their national currencies.

    ‘Important milestone’

    Wen, the first Chinese premier to visit Turkey in eight years, said he wanted to “turn over a new leaf” in ties with Turkey. He also held talks with Abdullah Gul, the Turkish president, and business leaders before returning home on Saturday.

    Turkey was the last stop on Wen’s European tour, which took him to Greece, Belgium and Brussels.

    He described his two-day visit as an “important milestone in relations”.

    Turkey’s ties with China have been strained at times, notably over Beijing’s approach to unrest in Xinjiang, home to China’s Muslim Turkish minority Uighurs.

    The two leaders did not, however, address one of the few areas of tension in bilateral ties.

    Hundreds of Uighur Turks held demonstrations during Wen’s visit, denouncing Beijing’s handling of the unrest which killed 184 people in Xinjiang in 2009.

    Turkey accepts China’s sovereignty over Xinjiang, but last year heavily criticised the deadly violence in the region, which it described as “atrocities”.

    Wen’s tour of Europe was also overshadowed by a dispute with the European Union and the US over the level of the yuan.

    In the Greek capital Athens, he pledged investment and support to debt-stricken Greece and announced the creation of a $5bn fund to help finance the purchase of Chinese ships by Greek shipping companies.

    In Brussels, Wen fended off European pressure to raise the value of the yuan before sealing business deals worth $3.15bn in Rome.

    Trade ‘imbalance’

    The trade volume between Turkey and China stood at $14.2bn in 2009 – $12.6bn of which consisted of Chinese exports.

    Wen said his country was not opposed to looking into ways to redress the imbalance. “The Chinese side will carry out a study in order to sustain our trade without giving a huge deficit,” he said.

    One of the agreements would open the way for the joint construction of 4,500km of railway in Turkey, Erdogan said, adding that efforts would now focus on finding the necessary finance for the project.

    Chinese companies are already involved in the construction of railroads for two high-speed train links, he added.

    Turkey and China are also involved in projects to build oil pipelines from Iran.

    Joint military exercise

    Turkish newspapers reported last week that Chinese warplanes took part in a military training exercise at an airbase in central Turkey, in what appeared to be the first such drill involving Beijing and a Nato member country.

    The Turkish army has not confirmed the exercise.

    Turkish press reports also said the Chinese-Turkish manoeuvres took place on September 20 through October 4 at the Konya air base in Turkey’s central Anatolia region – before Wen’s visit.

    “To the best of our knowledge, US-made F-16s were not involved in the exercise,” Lieutenant Colonel Tamara Parker, a defence department spokeswoman, said on Friday.

    Another Pentagon official, who asked not to be identified, said indications were that the Turkish air force flew F-4 Phantom fighters, used extensively by the US during the Vietnam war, while China flew Russian-built SU-27s.

    China, according to reports, has also developed a surface-to-surface rocket-launching system together with Turkey.

  • China mounts air exercise with Turkey, U.S. says

    China mounts air exercise with Turkey, U.S. says

    By Jim Wolf

    china mapWASHINGTON (Reuters) – The air forces of China and Turkey have carried out a joint exercise, the U.S. Defense Department said on Friday, in what appeared to be the first such drill involving Beijing and a NATO member country.

    Turkey assured the United States it would take the “utmost care” to protect sensitive U.S. and NATO technologies, said U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Tamara Parker, a department spokeswoman.

    She described Turkey’s government as committed to the NATO alliance and the continuation of strong ties to the United States.

    “To the best of our knowledge, U.S.-made F-16s were not involved in the exercise,” Parker said. She referred a caller to the Turkish government for details of the maneuvers.

    The office of the Turkish defense attache in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

    Turkish press reports have said the exercises took place September 20 through October 4 at the Konya air base in Turkey’s central Anatolia region.

    Some U.S. experts described the exercise as underscoring China’s capability to operate beyond its territory.

    David Finkelstein, director of China Studies at the CNA research group in Alexandria, Virginia, said it may be the first time China’s People’s Liberation Army air force engaged in a combined exercise with a NATO country in a NATO country.

    “Indeed, an incipient expeditionary PLA is in the making,” said Finkelstein.

    Another Pentagon official, who asked not to be identified, said indications were that the Turkish air force flew F-4 Phantom fighters, used extensively by the United States during the Vietnam War, while China flew Russian-built SU-27s.

    The Chinese-Turkish maneuvers occurred before a visit to Turkey this week by Premier Wen Jiabao. Turkey and China aim to triple two-way trade to $50 billion a year by 2015 under a new “strategic partnership,” Wen told a news conference in Ankara on Friday with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

    James Clad, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia from 2007 to 2009, said the drill highlighted Turkey’s “omni-directional” foreign policy.

    The dislike by Turkey and the Muslim world of Chinese policies in western China “won’t be going away soon,” added Clad, now with the Defense Department’s National Defense University.

    Turkey’s ties with China have been strained at times, notably over Beijing’s tough approach to unrest in Xinjiang, home to China’s Muslim Turkic minority Uighurs.

    “It seems the Turks opted to react to overtures from the Chinese which, with appropriate technological restrictions, could prove useful in assessing Chinese air capabilities,” Clad said.

    (Editing by Peter Cooney)