Turkey is becoming more self-sufficient post-pandemic

Turkey is setting itself up to become more self-sufficient and less dependent on the international supply chain in a post-coronavirus period in a liberal world order.

The country's Senior Presidential Advisor Gulnur Aybet stated that Ankara's model is not mercantilist, but instead increases regional and global trade.

She was speaking during a joint webinar with the Turkish Heritage Organization and Atlantic Council.

“We see [Turkey] is becoming more self-sufficient [in post-coronavirus period]. It has much more robust relations all around the globe and it trades globally.

"Turkey, with a fast-growing economy, being a trading state is much more immersed, and the practices of a global liberal order than it was before during the Cold War."

Aybet noted that the world has passed three phase after World War II. During the Cold War and post-Cold War periods, Turkey was not a "real strategic partner" but its location and as the second largest army of NATO made it quite functional, she added.

She stressed that the transatlantic centre, which consists of Europe and the US, is beneficial for countries in the liberal world order, but their exclusionary and imposing policies has harmed the principles and values that they have created in the system.

"I don't think we have core-periphery anymore in this system, but the assumptions behind this are still very much there. If the liberal world order system seizes to be liberal, it becomes a system of imposing norms and that goes against the very thing you are trying to build," Aybet said.

During the post-coronavirus era, she noted, the importance of international institutions such as NATO will continue, but the perception of security threats will differentiate which Turkey-US relations will need to be relooked at.