US hopeful on Turkish-American ties ahead of Fidan-Blinken talks

SERKAN DEMİRTAŞ - ANKARA

The United States believes the Strategic Mechanism meetings to be held by the foreign ministers of the two countries, Hakan Fidan and Antony Blinken, in Washington this week constitute a very good opportunity for improving bilateral ties in almost all fields, including security, trade, energy and climate.

“Together [with Türkiye], we are building a positive, forward looking strategic agenda to advance our shared objectives. We really need to seize this opportunity. This is something that we were working very hard on for quite some time,” a U.S. government official told a group of Turkish journalists on the eve of the Strategic Mechanism meetings slated for March 7 and 8.

Fidan and Blinken will chair the meetings which will observe sessions on different aspects of bilateral ties, including trade, investment, energy and climate as well as strategic and security issues. It will be the first Strategic Mechanism at the level of foreign ministers since January 2023.

The meeting comes after the U.S. Congress approved the sale of 40 new F-16s to Türkiye in return of the latter’s ratification of Sweden’s bid to join NATO. According to the official, the two sides should now capitalize this political achievement through talks on all relevant aspects of the ties at the Strategic Mechanism.

“It is time to re-energize this relationship and identify the areas on which we can have forward looking relations,” the official stressed.

Trade and investment as well economic cooperation with third countries seems to be an area on which Türkiye and the U.S. can work together. With the U.S. being second largest foreign investor to Türkiye since 2002, the two countries have great opportunities to expand this relationship through the activities of the Turkish and American private companies, the official underlined, adding that the two countries will hold a large panel to discuss all these opportunities in the coming months under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, or TIFA.

“We think there is a lot of opportunities to work with Türkiye in places like Africa, Central Asia to deliver much needed development and counter the influence People Republic of China and Russian activities,” added the official.

However, there are also issues on which the two countries have differences, particularly on the fight against terrorism in northern Syria.

According to the official, the Strategic Mechanism will pave the way for managing policy differences as well, including in the fight against terror. But the official informed that thanks to intense diplomatic engagement in the past six months, there is a better understanding between the two sides.

Türkiye slams the U.S. for providing political and military support to the YPG, a terror organization, which functions as its local partner in countering the ISIL terrorist organization in northern Syria.

In Washington, Fidan will reiterate Ankara’s calls on the U.S. to bring an end to its support to the YPG, according to Turkish diplomatic sources.