US Vice President Joe Biden to visit Turkey next month

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

US Vice President Joe Biden next month visits Ukraine as well as Turkey, where fighting across the border in the Syrian town of Kobane has sparked tensions with Washington. AFP Photo

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden next month visits Ukraine as well as Turkey, where fighting across the border in the Syrian town of Kobane has sparked tensions with Washington.

During the week of November 17, the U.S vice president travel on to Morocco and Turkey, where he nis expected to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

U.S. airdrops of weapons and medical supplies to Kurdish fighters in Kobane, under siege by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), have prompted tensions with Ankara. Erdoğan publicly criticized the United States for the step, saying that it considered the Democratic Union Party (PYD) as affiliated to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Last month, Biden had apologized to Erdoğan for any implications that Turkey supported ISIL militants.

Before visiting Turkey, Biden is also set to travel to Ukraine where he will President Petro Poroshenko, after pro-Western parties scored big wins in Ukrainian elections, the White House said Oct. 27.