Türkiye, Germany open new, strategic page in ties

BERLIN

Türkiye and Germany have reiterated their common will of opening a new and strategic page in bilateral ties by deepening cooperation in almost all fields, including energy, trade, economy and defense industry.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan paid a one-day visit to Berlin on Nov. 28 upon the invitation of his German counterpart, Johann David Wadephul.

His visit comes six weeks after Wadephul’s trip to Ankara and four weeks after German Chancellor Friedrich Werz’s official trip where he was hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

At a press conference, Fidan and Wadephul hailed increased frequency in high-level talks between the two countries’ senior officials as the latter informed that the Turkish-German strategic dialogue mechanism will hold its first meeting in 2026.

“It is time to open a new page,” Wadephul said, citing recent geopolitical changes stemming from the ongoing Russian occupation of Ukraine necessitate closer ties and cooperation between Ankara and Berlin.

For his part, Fidan, too, underscored the importance of good ties between the two NATO allies and stressed the need for further capitalizing the good spirit in the bilateral ties. “There is a new era and a new situation. We should strengthen this momentum,” he said.

A joint economy and trade forum will convene next year and it will boost energy and mining cooperation the minister said, adding this will contribute to further increasing trade relations as Germany stands Türkiye’s biggest economic partner in Europe.

Türkiye-EU ties should be revived

An important issue the two ministers discussed was on how stalled Türkiye-EU accession process could be revived.

Wadephul repeated Germany’s readiness to seriously engage with Türkiye to make it closer to the EU but urged that it should first implement all the aspects of Copenhagen criteria as they are non-negotiable.

“Türkiye is a central country in many aspects. Thus, it is obvious that strengthening Türkiye-EU ties is to our interest. If Türkiye wants to join the EU, Germany will be one of its credible and friendly partners. Türkiye should demonstrate that it takes this seriously,” the minister said.

The Turkish top diplomat recalled that EU membership remains to be Türkiye’s strategic priority but it needs to see that this will is shared and put in practice from Brussels.

“The problem here is the fact that accession talks have been stalled. EU is not opening new negotiation chapters. We discussed how to proceed this process,” Fidan said. When it comes to meeting criteria, Türkiye is aware that it needs to fulfill them to become a member of the club, Fidan assured, but stressing that EU also should demonstrate its will to revive accession process.

On another question over human rights problem, Fidan said these things can change in the speed of light if EU would be ready to start a new process with Türkiye.

European security not without Türkiye

The ministers also discussed potential partnership in the making of a new security architecture.

Explaining how the EU is trying to undertake its security given the changed geopolitical conditions, Wadephul said Germany is of the opinion that this effort should be complimentary to NATO’s efforts as the North Atlantic alliance will continue to be the primary security pact.

“Türkiye has always been a credible NATO ally. We, as the federal government, has always been favorable in elevating our ties to a new level especially on security related issues,” he said.

Wadephul also underlined that Berlin believes that the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) mechanism should be open to non-EU countries as well and Türkiye should be surely part of it given its defense industry capacity.

Fidan also repeated Ankara’s intentions to further develop its security cooperation with the EU as the two sides’ common point is to provide the security of the entire European continent.

“Until Türkiye becomes a member, we should find innovative solutions for the Turkish participation in security mechanisms. We cannot tolerate delaying these strategic and security issues for some protocol problems,” referring to Greek and Greek Cyprus’ opposition to Türkiye’s participation to the SAFE mechanism.