Trump has spoken with Erdoğan, aides confirm

WASHINGTON

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming vice president have now spoken to 29 foreign leaders and dignitaries, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump’s aides said Nov. 17.

Erdoğan previously had said he had talked to Trump on the phone and congratulated him over his victory. 

The list of more than two-dozen leaders, which included the previously reported British Prime Minister Theresa May and Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as new names like Erdoğan and Modi, was published by Trump’s team after a critical report by The New York Times which said the transition was in disarray.
Offices of foreign leaders were blindly dialing in to Trump Tower as they scrambled to get the future president on the phone, according to the daily.

But Trump and his aides insisted Nov. 17 that the transition process, including the naming of members of Trump’s cabinet, was progressing smoothly.

Argentine President Mauricio Macri, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Al Hariri, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım were among the 29 foreign leaders to have spoken to either Trump or Vice President-elect Mike Pence, the aides said.