It is reported that France, Greece and Cyprus have blocked the purchase of artillery shells and the purchase of Turkish Bayraktar drones for Ukraine. Here comes scandal. Two NATO members, France and Greece, stand against the interests of Turkey, another member of the North Atlantic Alliance.
France follows its own interests. The thing is they want orders for their military-industrial complex, while the country’s business activity has been declining for the eighth month in a row.
Greece however treats Russia differently and some of Greek entrepreneurs are helping Russians circumvent sanctions. Cyprus meets disappointment all around. It gets no profits from sticking to sanctions against Russia. Russians left the island en masse, closing their accounts, and this affected the turnover of Cypriot stores and restaurants.
The discord is taking over the NATO. The European publication Politico reports that the EU is preparing to impose sanctions on a number of Turkish companies for supplying dual-use products to Russia. This would cause a total bond breaking of all European business with these Turkish companies.
Moreover, the EU is up to impose sanctions on the whole Turkish state for cooperation with Russia. Germany is against it, and the reasons are crystal clear. By taking this step it would be very difficult to imagine how NATO will exist at all taking into account that a number of European member states will be effected by economic blockade on Ankara.
This outcome is quite possible because of the battle over billions of euros of military contracts. After all, Paris admitted that it has no intention to report Berlin its plans for loading military factories. Exact figures will only be announced to the EU apparatus that allocates the money. Any specific data will only be announced to the EU apparatus that allocates the money.
This approach reveals how deep the differences between the two key NATO actors in Europe are from an economic point of view. And it is no surprise for both states who are in recession and face large-scale protests by various social strata of society. Paris and Berlin are frantically searching for any economic boost.