President Gül sets for lengthy US trip

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

In this November 2011 photo, Turkish President Abdullah Gül (2nd R front) poses with NATO leaders. Gül will represent Turkey at NATO’s Chicago summit. AP photo

A comprehensive schedule is being drawn up for President Abdullah Gül’s trip to the United States this month, possibly including bilateral meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama and newly elected French leader François Hollande, the Hürriyet Daily News has learned.

Gül, who will represent Turkey at NATO’s May 20-21 summit in Chicago, will travel to the U.S. on May 18 and return on May 27, sources said. He is expected to hold bilateral talks with a number of leaders, including Obama and Bulgaria’s new President Rossen Plevneliev on the sidelines of the summit.

A meeting with Hollande following his election victory last week is also likely, if the new French president attends the gathering. Gül is also planning to meet with representatives of Turkish-American communities on both the east and west coasts of the U.S.

Özel-Dempsey meeting

Gül’s trip will follow an official visit to the U.S. by Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel, who flew to Washington yesterday at the invitation of his U.S. counterpart, Martin Dempsey. In a related development, Turkish and U.S. delegations met in Ankara yesterday for the eighth meeting of the bilateral Economic Partnership Commission, to discuss mutual development of economic, commercial and investment relations and cooperation opportunities in third countries. The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Undersecretary Halit Çevik and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Jose Fernandez chaired the talks. The meeting preceded high-level economic cooperation talks scheduled for late June.