US President Joe Biden will meet with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Rome later in the day.
The two men had a brief greeting yesterday, at the start of the G20.
The issue with the 10 ambassadors and the F-16 market is expected to be at the top of the agenda.
The Turkish president canceled the expulsion of ten Western ambassadors he had ordered – from the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and New Zealand. The ten diplomats publicly intervened on October 18 in favor of mystic and businessman Osman Kavala, who has been imprisoned for four years without being convicted, calling for a “fair and speedy settlement” of the case, which the Turkish head of state described as “indecent” and “Severe insult”.
“Certainly the (US) president will point out that we must find a way to avoid crises like this in the future, and that spasms are not going to benefit the US-Turkey partnership and alliance,” he said. journalists.
He added that the meeting would not have taken place if Recep Tayyip Erdogan had proceeded with the expulsion of the American ambassador. But, he added, this issue has been resolved, for the time being at least.
Joe Biden and Tayyip Erdogan chatting during the family photo at the G20 Summit in Rome, 30/10/2011 Ludovic Marin / Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Joe Biden also intends to discuss with him the request for the purchase of 40 F-16 fighter jets and modernization packages of another 80 already in the Turkish Air Force fleet, bilateral relations in the field of defense, as well as regional issues. especially the crises in Syria and Libya, where the positions of the two countries have wide differences.
US lawmakers are reacting to the possible sale of F-16s and modernization kits and threatening to block it, citing Ankara's purchase of the Russian S-400 anti-missile system and Turkey's “acting as an adversary” to the United States. The purchase led to the cancellation of the contract for the purchase of US state-of-the-art stealth F-35 fighter jets from Ankara and its expulsion from their co-production program.
The two leaders last met separately in June, on the sidelines of NATO's annual summit.
SOURCE: euronews.com
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