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Comment by redwood | Hacker News Reader

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This doesn't really seem like an appropriate response to what amounts to a trade policy dispute, and one that sounds like it can be resolved.

You want to modify the membership of a military treaty because of decision about who they sell metal to? There might be a convincing case to do what you're saying, but it's not at all obvious from the current context

Rare earths are vital for military equipment. This action is coming from a country that NATO has trusted with its best technology and they continue to flirt with both Russia and China, NATO's primary threats.

"Trusted with its best technology"

No. The US kicked NATO member Türkiye out of the F-35 program and denied them F-16 upgrades for a long time[1]. And the EU has denied Türkiye membership supposedly because they're not fully part of Europe (among other issues) while courting Georgia which is farther east. Türkiye is treated as a frenemy by the west. Good on them for making their own way.

[1] https://balkaneu.com/turkeys-f-16-deal-stalls-as-focus-shift...

> among other issues

Those words are doing some heavy lifting. The EU cares more about their commitment to democracy, and their dubious economic policies. The last thing the EU needs is another Hungary.

My instinct is that there are a lot of a potentially good reasons not to let them into the EU, and maybe even ones for kicking them out of NATO, but "they want to sell their minerals to other countries" doesn't strike me as a reasonable gripe in terms of NATO at least.

military alliance is related to trade dispute..how?

The US needs them more than they need the US. They're strategically placed at the bosphorous containing russia's western advances and containing the baltics. Ukraine would be the next best thing, but they're not in NATO.

Honestly, the US doesn't need Türkiye. Europe does.

Are you aware that Turkey is the biggest NATO force on this side of ocean?

You want to kick them out of NATO because the USA and Turkey have failed to come to a trade agreement on rare earth elements? Because that's what this is about. We have no agreement, so they aren't selling to us.

From Turkey:

> Responding to the allegations that 'rare earth elements are sold to the USA', Bayraktar said that there is absolutely no such thing. Bayraktar said, "The agreement we made and signed in America was also a nuclear-related agreement. If we had done it about rare earth elements, be sure, they would have declared it too, we would have declared it," he said.

That seems more like a rununciation of rumors and making it clear neither the US or Turkey have established a trade agreement for this.

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