Turkey wants to resolve issues with US: FM Çavuşoğlu

ANKARA

Turkey wants to resolve bilateral problems with the United States and the Turkey-U.S. Strategic Mechanism will serve this bid, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on May 17.

“We want to solve problems we have in our relations with the U.S. The meeting in Rome, between our president and [U.S. President Joe] Biden, was an important meeting in this sense. We established a strategic mechanism upon the proposal of Mr. Biden,” he said, speaking to members of the “Turkish-American community” at the Türkevi Center in New York.

“The purpose of this mechanism is to work on the problems we experience in our bilateral relations and in the region, the resolution of the issues on which we disagree, or how we can act together on these issues,” he added.

“Within the framework of the crises around the world, we will discuss with the U.S. on which areas we can develop our relations as part of this mechanism,” Çavuşoğlu said. Stating that especially the economic relations with the U.S. have improved, bilateral trade exceeded $27 billion last year and the target is $100 billion.

A meeting at the level of presidents could take place this year, the minister also said.

“I hope, within this mechanism, we can solve or reduce the issues and improve our cooperation by working with a result-oriented approach,” he added.

Çavuşoğlu is scheduled to attend the first-ever International Migration Review Forum within the margins of the U.N. General Assembly on late May 18. He was also to attend the Global Food Security Call to Action ministerial meeting to be hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, after daily news went press.

Çavuşoğlu and his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken are scheduled to meet in New York on May 18 for the first discussions of the Turkey-US Strategic Mechanism at foreign ministers level.

The talks come amid objections from Turkey, a key NATO member who declared Finland and Sweden should not be allowed to join the alliance because they have been too lax in taking action against the PKK terror organization. Countries can only join NATO if all current members agree.

The war between Ukraine and Russia brought Turkey to the core of international efforts for peace as Ankara played a facilitator role in the dialogue between Kiev and Moscow. The talks were expected to address the Ukrainian crisis.

The ties between Turkey and the U.S. have been facing difficulties over disagreements on several issues, including the latter’s political and military support to the YPG group in Syria in the fight against ISIL since Ankara designated the YPG as the Syrian wing of the PKK, therefore as a terrorist organization.

Turkey’s procurement of Russian-made S-400 air defense systems has been another hot potato in bilateral ties. Turkey was excluded from the joint F-35 fighter jet program in mid-2019 after it deployed the Russian defense systems.

Ankara and Washington have been in talks over the latter’s supply of warplanes needed by the Turkish army in return for the $1.4 billion it paid to the U.S. for the fifth-generation jet fighters. Recently, Turkey asked for the purchase of 40 F-16 fighters and 80 modernization kits for its existing fleet.