Turkey’s foreign minister said Friday that his country did not want NATO to “take part” in the Ukraine war as other alliance members allow Kyiv to strike Russia with their weapons, Agence France-Presse reported.
“We support the continuation of aid to Ukraine and Ukraine’s capacity for dissuasion (against Russia), but we do not want NATO to take part in this war,” Hakan Fidan said after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague.
“We think a balance must be maintained between these two things, both by the member states and by NATO” overall, he added, warning that the conflict could spread regionally and spark worse crises.
Turkey has managed to tread a fine diplomatic line by maintaining ties with both Russia and Ukraine since Moscow invaded its pro-Western neighbor in February 2022.
Washington on Thursday gave the green light for Ukraine to use US weapons to defend its Kharkiv region on the border with Russia, overcoming previous concerns that authorizing such strikes could drag NATO into a direct conflict with Russia.
Germany on Friday said it too had given Ukraine permission to fire German-delivered weapons at targets in Russia.