“Very productive and sincere” interview between Biden and Erdogan

Despite undermined diplomatic ground, they discussed without taboos. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that he had a “very productive and sincere” meeting with his American counterpart Joe Biden, whom he met for the first time, on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Brussels. “I must say that we had a very productive and sincere meeting,” Erdogan said at a press conference in Brussels, adding that “no problem in the relations between Turkey and the United States is insurmountable. “.

Washington’s recognition of the Armenian genocide, Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system, American support for the Syrian Kurdish militias, American refusal to extradite the preacher Fethullah Gülen, accused of orchestrating the 2016 coup against Erdogan … Several areas of disagreement between Ankara and Washington have strained their relations.

Tuquie excluded from the F-35 program

In response to the 2019 delivery to Turkey of the first battery of the Russian S-400 air defense system, the United States had excluded Ankara from the production program of the F-35 stealth aircraft, arguing that the Russian missiles could unravel its technological secrets and were incompatible with NATO systems.

Turkey has kept asking Washington to reintegrate it into this program ever since, claiming that the deployment of the S-400s would have no impact on NATO’s defense systems.

“Regarding the S-400 I reiterated our position to the American president,” he said. “We agreed to activate our channels of dialogue in an efficient and regular manner worthy of two allies and strategic partners and we underlined the need to energize the existing mechanisms of regional cooperation and consultation,” he added. .

Erdogan also indicated that he discussed with his American counterpart the modalities of a possible maintenance of Turkish forces present in Afghanistan after the American withdrawal from this country scheduled for September. “If Turkey is asked to leave Afghanistan, American diplomatic, logistical and financial support would be very important,” he said, adding to be in contact on this issue with other countries such as Pakistan and the United States. Hungary. “And obviously it is not possible to ignore the Taliban reality. We could continue the talks with them by various means ”, continued the Turkish head of state.

Tensions with Greece

Turkish-American relations have deteriorated since Joe Biden took over in the White House in January from Donald Trump, an ally of Mr. Erdogan. Biden notably acknowledged the Armenian genocide under the Ottoman Empire during World War I, angering Ankara.

Erdogan also met in Brussels with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at a time when relations between Ankara and Greece are crossed by strong tensions around the exploitation of hydrocarbon deposits in the Mediterranean.

Erdogan said he had asked the Greek leader “not to involve third parties” in this dispute, an allusion to the European Union which supports Greek claims. “If there is a problem you can easily call me on the direct line and I will do the same. The problems can be settled between the two leaders, ”he said.

In Athens, a Greek government source indicated that the meeting between Erdogan and Mitsotakis “had taken place in a good climate” and that “the improvement of relations between the two countries would be done step by step”. However, the two neighboring countries “continue to have great differences especially concerning the delimitation of maritime zones” in the eastern Mediterranean, underlined this source close to the services of the Greek Prime Minister.