ISTANBUL: Turkey stands to lose more than most other countries if Joe Biden is elected president since he is expected to toughen the U.S. stance against President Tayyip Erdogan’s foreign military interventions and closer cooperation with Russia.
Investors and analysts say the beleaguered Turkish lira is especially vulnerable if a Biden White House pulls the trigger on long-threatened sanctions over Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 missiles, which Washington says compromise NATO defences.
An apparent S-400s test last week prompted a furious response from the State Department and Pentagon. Top Republican and Democratic U.S. senators also called for sanctions that could hobble a Turkish economy hit by two slumps in as many years.
Erdogan has downplayed possible fallout and promised counter-sanctions.
The American threats have rung hollow since Moscow shipped the weapons to Ankara in mid-2019, largely because President Donald Trump has resisted punishing Erdogan, with whom he has regular calls, saying he hopes talks will resolve the issue.
Erdogan has leveraged his warm ties with Trump to flex military muscle in Syria, Libya, the Eastern Mediterranean and this month in Nagorno-Karabakh, filling some gaps left by a U.S. retreat from the region in recent years. But the relationship could cool if Biden, the Democratic candidate and front-runner, wins the November 4 election. – Agencies
