Erdoğan, Biden have 'very good meeting' at NATO summit

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with his United States counterpart Joe Biden in a closed-door meeting Monday during the NATO summit in Brussels.

Their one-on-one meeting took 45 minutes, after which Turkish and U.S. delegations held a joint meeting.

The NATO summit, gathering heads of member states and governments, began Monday in Brussels.

The NATO leaders have been holding bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit.

According to NATO, the summit is being held to respond to the challenges "of today and tomorrow." These include terrorism, cyberattacks, disruptive technologies and the security implications of climate change. The NATO 2030 initiative to "continue adapting" the alliance is at the heart of the summit.

While Erdoğan also held bilateral meetings with other NATO leaders on the sidelines of the summit, the meeting with Biden came to the forefront, as it was the first face-to-face interaction between the two since the latter's election as president.

A positive agenda is prioritized for the upcoming meeting between Erdoğan and Biden, with potential areas of cooperation and opportunities expected to dominate talks in addition to discussions about ongoing disagreements. Biden and Erdoğan are expected to discuss a range of issues including Syria, Afghanistan, the Eastern Mediterranean and the S-400s issue on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels Monday.

The meeting comes against the backdrop of a fair amount of tension between the two countries. Although NATO allies Turkey and the U.S. have voiced interest in resetting recently strained ties, disagreements on several points remain, and sources have pointed out that political cooperation is the key to progress.

Ankara and Washington disagree on a number of issues that have further strained bilateral ties in recent years, from Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 missile defense systems to the U.S. support to the PKK terrorist group's Syrian branch, the YPG terrorist group, as well as the U.S. refusal to extradite Fetullah Gülen, leader of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and some other legal matters.

The greatest challenge that Turkey-U.S. relations face is not the problem of Ankara’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system but rather Washington’s support for the PKK terrorist organization’s Syrian wing, the YPG, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar stated recently.

The two NATO allies also have differing views on some regional issues, such as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as well as Ankara's hydrocarbon exploration activities in the Eastern Mediterranean. On the other hand, the two leaders are expected to discuss potential cooperation areas and opportunities in regional issues, especially in Libya, Afghanistan and northwestern Syria. There are areas of common ground including efforts to reach a political solution in Libya and opposition to the Bashar Assad regime in Syria. The two countries can also play a major role in the reconstruction of Libya, while both defend the continuation of cross-border aid to northwestern Syria despite Russia’s opposition.

Turkey is approaching the upcoming meeting between Erdoğan and Biden with a positive agenda, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said last week, adding that Ankara has received similar optimistic signals from Washington. Çavuşoğlu noted that the U.S. wants to cooperate with Turkey not only on the issues of Libya and Syria, but also in many areas from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea and the Caucasus regions.

Biden is also looking forward to reviewing the "full breadth" of Ankara-Washington ties, as he and Erdoğan are scheduled to meet and discuss Syria, Afghanistan and other regional issues, the U.S.' national security adviser said last week, underlining that the two leaders will also look at the "significant differences" between the two NATO allies.

Erdoğan recently said that he believes his first in-person meeting with Biden will mark the beginning of a new era.

“I believe that our meeting with Mr. Biden at the NATO summit will be the harbinger of a new era,” Erdoğan said in a televised address while holding a roundtable call with a group of executives from large U.S. companies.

“From Syria to Libya, and from fighting against terrorism to energy, and from trade to investments, we have serious potential for cooperation with the U.S.,” the Turkish president said.

(c) Daily Sabah

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