WATFORD, United Kingdom — US President Donald Trump holds a previously unannounced bilateral meeting with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
Turkey has faced criticism among the allies at the London meeting and has threatened to impede a stronger defense policy for the Baltic states and the head-to-head was not on Trump’s published agenda.
“The presidents discussed the importance of Turkey fulfilling its alliance commitments, further strengthening commerce through boosting bilateral trade by $100 billion, regional security challenges, and energy security,” a White House official says.
Some of Turkey’s Western allies, particularly France, have sharply criticized Ankara’s operation in northern Syria, which has targeted the Kurdish militia fighters who helped defeat the Islamic State jihadist group.
European capitals were as annoyed that Erdogan chose to buy and deploy Russia’s S-400 air defense system, in defiance of US sanctions threat and NATO defense procurement policy.
But Ankara in turn has demanded that NATO members recognize the Kurdish groups as terrorists and has threatened to oppose measures to shore up Eastern European members against threats from Russia.
— AFP
US President Donald Trump (L) and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) leave the stage after the family photo at the NATO summit at the Grove hotel in Watford, northeast of London, December 4, 2019. (Peter Nicholls/Pool/AFP)
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