Turkish, US top diplomats meet in Berlin

BERLIN

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and his United States counterpart, Mike Pompeo, held a bilateral meeting in Berlin on the sidelines of a Germany-led summit for Libya, Anadolu Agency reported on Jan. 19.

Çavuşoğlu and Pompeo discussed the international efforts for a permanent ceasefire to be followed with a political agreement between the two warring sides, Tripoli-based Government of National Accord and Tobruk-based Khalifa Haftar. The two ministers have reviewed a drafted communiqué to be released following the summit and discussed other regional issues.

“We discussed Turkey-U.S. relations and the Conference on Libya. In close contact with all key actors for a lasting ceasefire and return to the political process in Libya,” Çavuşoğlu said on his Twitter account.

Çavuşoğlu had a separate meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio in Berlin on the eve of the summit. The minister said they discussed the preparations of the Berlin Summit and Turkish-Italian cooperation in the Mediterranean.

Çavuşoğlu informed the reporters that all relevant sides were working on a drafted communiqué to be released after the summit and stressed that Turkey was hoping a positive result from the summit.

“We have to be result-oriented,” he said, calling on all parties to genuinely contribute for peace.

Recalling that Turkey and Russia played an important role in this process by issuing a call for ceasefire on Jan. 8, Çavuşoğlu emphasized that Ankara’s main expectation is to reach a permanent ceasefire and unity of Libya as a stable country.

Germany invited world powers and regional actors to a peace conference on Libya in a bid to thrash out a lasting cease-fire deal and pave the way for a political solution.

Leaders, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, are gathering in Berlin on Sunday for the conference, which will be co-hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The German government announced that both Libya's internationally recognized Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and the eastern-based commander Haftar also accepted invitations for the conference.

The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also arrived in Berlin to join talks, and had several bilateral meetings with his counterparts.

Top officials from Egypt and UAE, main supporters of the Libyan warlord Haftar, are also expected to take part in the conference.

Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, and Republic of Congo's President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who chairs the African Union's High-Level Committee on Libya, were also invited.