Turkey’s top diplomat to visit U.S. amid disputes
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey and the United States will aim to smooth out a series of disagreements between the NATO allies when the Turkish foreign minister visits Washington this week. But expectations that outstanding issues can be resolved are low.
Mevlut Cavusoglu departed on Tuesday for a meeting on Wednesday with U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken on a rare visit by a top Turkish official. President Joe
Biden ‘s administration has kept its distance from Turkey because of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian direction and policies curbing rights and freedoms.
Positioned at the crossroads between East and West, Turkey remains strategically important for Washington. Last year, the Turkish government helped broker an agreement between Russia and Ukraine that allowed millions of tons of Ukrainian grain to be transported to world markets, averting a food crisis amid the war.
NATO allies, however, find themselves at odds over several issues, with the biggest disputes centering on Turkey’s purchase of Russian-made missiles and American support for Kurdish militants in Syria.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Tuesday that Iran welcomes steps toward a reconciliation between Turkey and Syria and is ready to help move the efforts forward.
The Iranian minister made the comments in Ankara, weeks after the Turkish and Syrian defense ministers held talks in Moscow.
Also, Turkey on Tuesday denounced as “absurd” a decision by a Swedish prosecutor not to open an investigation into a protest by Kurds in central Stockholm where an effigy of the Turkish president was hung from a lamppost.
Last week, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called the protest as an act of “sabotage” against Sweden’s bid to join NATO.