Amid widening differences over Gaza, Turkey postponed in April the Turkish president’s visit to the White House that was planned for May.
US Ambassador to Ankara Jeff Flake said that the NATO leaders summit in Washington on July 9-11 could be an opportunity for a meeting between President Joe Biden and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan’s first visit to the Biden White House, initially planned for May, was postponed by the Turkish side, with officials from both countries citing a scheduling conflict. However, the United States’ continuing military support for Israel in its war in Gaza is believed to be one of the leading factors in the Turkish side’s decision to postpone.
Biden is the first US President in over two decades who has not hosted Erdogan in the White House during the first three years in office.
“There’s some desire on both sides” for a meeting, Flake told Reuters in an exclusive interview released on Wednesday, adding that the transatlantic alliance’s summit in Washington provides an opportunity for the talks. While reiterating that the postponement was due to a scheduling conflict, Flake also acknowledged that the planning of the visit came at challenging times for US-Turkey ties amid a “tough political backdrop” over the Israel-Hamas war.
The NATO leaders will gather in Washington to mark the security alliance’s 75th anniversary. Turkish officials said Erdogan would attend the meeting.
Erdogan has been a vocal critic of Israel and the United States over the war in Gaza. “Countries that provide ammunition and weapons support to Israel in its massacres should also stop being a party to this crime,” he said last week in a fresh, thinly veiled jab at the Biden administration.
Unlike the United States and the European Union, Turkey doesn’t consider Hamas a terrorist organization and its political leaders can freely travel to Turkey. The US Treasury imposed sanctions on a series of Turkish individuals and companies for financing the group at the beginning of the war.
BRICS: Hope not
Erdogan’s visit to the United States will come on the heels of his attendance at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit on July 3-4 in the Kazakh capital of Astana. Speaking during his meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Tuesday, Putin said he would meet with Erdogan in person on the sidelines of the SCO summit.
Fidan, who visited China first and then Russia within a week, has been messaging that Turkey is willing to deepen its cooperation with the United States’ traditional foes, namely Russia and China.
Speaking in China last week, Fidan said Turkey was exploring new opportunities with BRICS. Putin said on Tuesday that he would “fully support” Turkey’s aspirations in the China-led bloc founded by Russia, Brazil, South Africa and India.
Flake expressed his hope that Turkey would not join BRICS, but he added that the NATO member’s involvement in the bloc would not derail its alignment with the West, Reuters reported.