Italian-Turkish Relations before and after the War in Ukraine: From NATO Membership to Food Diplomacy.

• Author: Chiriatti, Alessia

Introduction

On February 12, 1951, Harry S. Truman, at the time the President of the U.S., formally recommended to U.S. Congress that India be provided with two million tons of grain "in emergency assistance in order to meet a food crisis of potentially catastrophic dimensions." (1) Truman's decision was influenced by several reasons. Firstly, it was driven by humanitarian purposes, aimed at meeting India's food needs. Secondly, the centrality of India as a new independent state (created on August 15, 1947), with its vigorous leadership, rich natural resources, size, and population, convinced American policymakers to strengthen diplomatic ties with 'a major Asiatic power.' India, at the beginning of the Cold War, was led by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's non-alignment philosophy against Western colonialism. This stance was influenced by the Korean War, and India was alone in a position to compete with Chinese communism for hegemony in Southeast Asia. (2)

Considering this Indian case and drawing a parallel with the ongoing situation in Ukraine, we can affirm that food has been and continues to be a crucial factor in diplomacy in the last decades (as it has been since the inception of the institution of diplomacy with the creation of the modern nation-state). The Black Sea Grain Initiative, strongly advocated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, after the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022, helped ease the global food crisis and continues to be a top issue on the foreign policy agenda of Turkiye, especially after the decision by Russia to suspend its participation in the deal.

Food diplomacy is just one example of how Turkiye, in line with its foreign policy of the past two decades, is reshaping its regional and global influence. This evolution aligns with the ongoing dynamism exhibited by the ruling party, the Justice and Development Party, (AK Party), since it assumed power in 2002.

If we consider the regional dimension and the centrality of the Mediterranean and Black Sea after the outbreak of war in Ukraine, one of Turkiye's crucial strategic partners is Italy. Italy and Turkiye have had a long history of diplomatic, military (both Italy and Turkiye are members of the NATO), economic, and cultural interactions. Both states have a strong stance in response to the Russian aggression against Ukraine: Italy has firmly condemned the invasion and offered its full support for Kyiv's territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence; Turkiye has taken several steps in support of Ukraine, denouncing the invasion and voting for UN resolutions condemning Russia, supplying armed drones to Ukraine, and blocking the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean to warring parties, as the Montreux Convention of 1936 permits, preventing Russia from reinforcing its Black Sea fleet.

Italian-Turkish relations have been consequently modeled by the war in Ukraine, with competitive cooperation that sees the two countries cooperating in some scenarios and on some international policy dossiers (such as the agreement on wheat and security in the Mediterranean Sea), but competing on others (as demonstrated by some of the tensions that have animated the debate between the two countries and between Turkiye and the European Union on the migrant issue in recent years). The future of relations between the two countries will therefore depend greatly on the balance in the Mediterranean Sea and the possible future resolution of the war in Ukraine. Essentially, we can consider the future ties of the two countries by analyzing two main dimensions...