Developing Turkish-Ukrainian relations should be crowned with visa exemptions
by
RECEP KORKUT*

With Davutoğlu at the helm of its Foreign Ministry, Turkey has now embarked on a foreign policy of “strategic depth.” An important leg of this approach in foreign policy is the creation of new cooperative efforts with the nations that border the Black Sea. And thus, one of the most significant results of this foreign policy approach is that Turkish-Ukrainian relations are currently experiencing one of their strongest periods ever. While Ukraine is a new trade target for Turkey, Turkey is a focal country for Ukraine’s own energy initiatives.

The strengthening and deepening of relations between Turkey and Ukraine during this period, in which both nations are making strides in their respective economies, is also a positive factor in the economic development of both countries. If we keep in mind that both nations have a need for new markets, it is evident that Turkey and Ukraine are clearly ever more important to one another. For Turkey, Ukraine -- with its market capacity, central geographic position, open economy and labor market -- is an attractive country in terms of both investment and the bettering of regional relations.

As for Ukraine, which has focused on making some strong alliances by entering into a group of independent nations, it sees Turkey as an important strategic partner. One concrete sign of this is the “High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council Joint Declaration,” signed in May by both Ukraine and Turkey. It appears that this declaration is now to be followed up by plans to cooperate in the arenas of the economy, trade, energy and transportation. In essence, relations that develop between Ukraine and Turkey are very valuable in terms of their contribution to a stable and rich global economy. To wit, both of these nations possess the potential to become the driving engines in the economies of their regions.

From energy diplomacy to cooperation on immigration

The role played by energy diplomacy in the great strides in relations between Ukraine and Turkey is significant. At the head of this diplomacy is the Nabucco pipeline, which will open a southern corridor between the Caspian Sea, Central Asia, northern Iraq and Europe. For Europe, the Nabucco project, which aims to rescue the region from dependence on Russia as its energy provider, is of vital importance. This importance was most underscored when Russia cut off its natural gas in January 2009. Turkey and Ukraine are both key countries in the Nabucco project, which, in addition to eliminating the EU’s dependence on Russia for energy, will open up a southern energy corridor and accelerate the development of a European energy market. When the Nabucco pipeline finally comes into being, just as both of these countries will play significant roles in the energy transit route, they will also help make the acquisition of natural gas cheaper. In addition to the advantages from having both Ukraine and Turkey as parts of the transit routes for Nabucco, it will also mean the effects of changes in Russia and the capricious behavior by Iran will be less severe.

In contrast to all of the above, Russia’s “South Stream Project,” on which it is spending billions of dollars in order to increase international dependence on Russian energy products, appears to be hold fewer comparative advantages than Nabucco. As is visible already, the fate of the Nabucco project is very important and a sensitive matter to both Ukraine and Turkey.

In order for Ukraine and Turkey to continue supporting each other in their respective quests to grow and prosper, it is an absolute precondition that there be a strengthened network of mutual relations between the two nations. In order to speed up and open the way towards increased and strengthened relations with Ukraine, especially during this period of moves being made on the Turkish foreign policy front, it is critical that barriers blocking investment be lifted. And to this end, it is important that visa requirements must be reciprocally lifted between these two nations. Just as the trade network and developing relations between Ukraine and Turkey have made the lifting of visa requirements necessary, the citizens who heavily circulate between the two nations will be positively affected by this move. The lifting of visa requirements between Turkey and Ukraine ought to be the crowning gesture of the developing relations between these two nations.

The lifting of visa requirements will necessitate cooperative efforts in immigration and human movement. Ukraine, like Turkey, is in a key geographic position for immigration routes chosen by people coming from numerous countries. Ukraine serves as a doorway to Europe; if Greece takes further precautions in increasing its own border security, then Ukraine’s importance to immigration routes will only increase. In the end, both Turkey and Ukraine share needs for modernization and development. At the same time, it is critical for both of these nations to stay true friends and mitigate any sources of tension between them. A strong Ukrainian-Turkish friendship and alliance will make their shared Black Sea-Caucasus goals undisputed, and instead put them onto the road towards finding solutions.

Bringing this to a close, it is impossible not to mention the Ukrainian ambassador to Turkey, Sergiy Korsunsky. Korsunsky has played the important role of being an extremely effective catalyst in the development of relations between these two nations.