‘No unsolvable issues in Turkey-US relations’
“THERE is no issue that cannot be resolved in relations between Turkey and the United States”, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said after a meeting with US President Joe Biden in Brussels.
The two leaders held their first in-person meeting, after Mr Biden came to power in January, on the sidelines of the Nato summit. The presidents initially met in a faceto-face discussion and then with their delegations.
“I see that there is a strong will to start a productive period of cooperation based on mutual respect and interest in every field. We will increase our cooperation with Mr Biden in line with these goals . . . We think that there is no problem that cannot be resolved in the relations between Turkey and the United States of America, on the contrary, our areas of cooperation show a broader and richer outlook than the problems,” Mr Erdoğan told a press conference after the meeting.
“We evaluated the steps that can be taken to fully realise the economic potential between us, taking into account the new opportunities that will arise after the pandemic,” Mr Erdoğan added.
Mr Erdoğan said he invited the US president to visit Turkey.
S-400s QUESTION
Responding to a question about Turkey’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile system, Mr Erdoğan said: “We expressed the same thoughts on the S-400s to President [Biden] as we had before, [and] also expressed the same thoughts about the F-35s.”
“Of course, all these efforts do not end here today. In the next process, our foreign ministers and defence ministers will meet their counterparts to work on this process.”
On another question, Mr
Erdoğan said Mr Biden’s categorisation of the 1915 events as genocide [against the Armenians] was not brought up during the meeting.
US SUPPORT TO YPG
Mr Erdoğan also said that Turkey clearly stated that the [US] support given to the PYD/PKK terror group should be ended.
Recalling the recent terrorist attack by the YPG/PKK on a hospital in Afrin, Syria that killed at least 14 civilian patients and injured dozens, Mr Erdoğan said this terror
act is enough to show the bloody, dirty and ugly face of the organisation.
BIDEN: WE WILL MAKE REAL PROGRESS
Mr Biden described his first face-to-face meeting with Mr Erdoğan as “positive and productive”.
Speaking at a news conference after several talks with Nato member states’ leaders, Mr Biden said he and Mr Erdoğan had detailed discussions about how to proceed on a number of issues.