BRUSSELS — Turkey has refused to back a €27 billion upgrade of NATO’s military fuel pipeline network, according to two alliance diplomats, as it mounts an eleventh-hour bid to extract concessions on the agreement.
Ankara declined to approve the multidecade deal during a meeting of the alliance’s 32 envoys last week despite countries reaching a provisional compromise this month, unless the Turkish projects in the deal get prioritized funding, the two diplomats said. Both were granted anonymity to speak freely on the classified discussions.
NATO countries are currently in crunch talks to finalize the agreement, which would extend the alliance’s 10,000-kilometer Cold War-era pipeline network from Western Europe to newer alliance member countries in the east and north. The move is part of NATO’s broader effort to prepare itself for a potential war with Russia.
At this month’s NATO leaders’ summit in Ankara, alliance Secretary-General Mark Rutte hailed a deal as imminent.
