Costas Iordanidis
After two official visits to Buckingham Palace and a lavish state dinner at Versailles just days ago, it was only a matter of time before U.S. President Donald Trump paid a visit to the "White Palace" built by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara, where the NATO summit will be held on July 7 and 8.
President Trump has a well-known fondness for grand, gold-trimmed settings, and he has openly expressed his admiration for Mr. Erdoğan. Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte by his side, he made that clear once again.
"I will attend the summit out of respect for President Erdoğan, and I may do something that will make him happy," Mr. Trump said.
His comment immediately fueled speculation. Some wondered whether he might announce Turkey's return to the F-35 fighter jet program or approve the sale of engines for Turkey's fifth-generation KAAN fighter. What, if anything, will actually happen remains to be seen.
The important point is that this NATO summit comes at a time when the balance of power in the Middle East is being fundamentally reshaped following the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran. Negotiations between Washington and Tehran continue at a slow pace, while relations between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are going through an unusually tense period.
Just as significant was Mr. Trump's decision on Wednesday to remind everyone of his disappointment with Italy, France, Germany, and Britain over the positions they took during the war against Iran. In his view, they failed to show sufficient loyalty to the United States. More importantly, the U.S. president rejected the idea that Mr. Erdoğan is an "astute neutral," saying, "Some people do not think of him as the leader of a NATO member, but in fact he is. He is a strong member of NATO."
Everything the leader of the Free World said could prove to be nothing more than political rhetoric. At this point, almost nothing can be ruled out. The real question is whether Mr. Trump's remarks from five days ago reflect the beginnings of a new U.S. strategy for the region. If they do, then Greece's decision to build a strategic partnership with Israel could eventually bring unpleasant surprises.
With relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv at their lowest point in years, the possibility that Greece, and Cyprus in particular, could become caught up in a confrontation between Turkey and Israel cannot be dismissed.
Athens, of course, continues to insist that its choices are the correct ones. Yet foreign policy offers no guarantees. No government can know in advance whether it has placed itself on the "right side of history," because no one can predict how a crisis will unfold. More often than not, conflicts end in ways that none of the parties involved ever intended.
