Erdogan to keep bolstering Turkiye's regional influence

ANKARA — Incumbent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has secured his third term after winning a runoff presidential election held on Sunday. Experts believe the veteran politician is likely to maintain a balance between the West and the East and keep positioning Turkiye as a regional heavyweight.

In Sunday's contest, Erdogan won 52.14 percent of the votes. The victory allows Erdogan to remain in power for another five years.

For a long time, the Turkish leader has enhanced Turkiye's strategic importance by attaching importance to the country's NATO membership on the international stage, and engaged in a delicate balancing act between the West and the East.

When he announced his election manifesto in April in Ankara, Erdogan hinted that his country will continue to play an active role in regional affairs.

"We will build the axis of Turkiye with a foreign policy where both our country, our region, and humanity will find peace and stability, multilateralism, more cooperation, peace, stability and humanitarian diplomacy," he said.

Batu Coskun, an independent political risk analyst in Ankara, said Erdogan is unlikely to change course, adding that a major task for the country would be to reconcile with former foes.

"Foreign policy-wise, I don't expect a vast shift from the previous foreign policy before the electoral cycle began," he said. A priority for Turkish diplomacy is to push for a reconciliation with Syria, he said.

Signs of thawing in Turkiye-Syria relations were seen last year at meetings with Turkish, Syrian and Russian ministers and officials in Moscow.

In the past few years, Turkiye has mended ties with Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates following difficult regional isolation. Egypt is next in line in Turkiye's drive, Coskun said.

In a phone call on Monday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Erdogan agreed to "immediately" upgrade diplomatic relations between the two countries and exchange ambassadors, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

"In a multipolar world, Turkiye strives for autonomy from the Western bloc, pursuing an independent foreign policy," a source close to the Turkish government said on the condition of anonymity.

Regarding Russia, analysts believe Ankara would continue to maintain close political and financial relations with Moscow, despite criticism from its Western allies.

"Turkiye's position on Russia is unlikely to change. Turkiye will continue to engage with Moscow and (President Vladimir) Putin financially, politically and strategically," Coskun said.

On relations with the United States, Erdogan expressed his desire in a media interview to cooperate with US President Joe Biden and his administration.

In a call on Monday, Biden said Erdogan repeated Ankara's desire to buy F-16 fighter jets from the US, while Biden told him Washington wanted Ankara to drop its objection to Sweden's joining NATO.

Agencies - Xinhua