 "Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan. Image Credit: Reuters")
In a first that comes at the close of the Biden administration, Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan will visit the United States on May 9, a Turkish security official said Friday.
According to Reuters, Turkish MIT intelligence agency head Ibrahim Kalin will meet with US House of Representatives members on Friday to discuss Erdogan’s planned visit and other bilateral issues, the official added.
Earlier, Turkish media outlets had widely reported that Erdogan was scheduled to be in the US at the invitation extended by President Joe Biden. The last in-person meeting between the two heads of state had happened last July at a NATO Summit, though they had been consistently in contact over phone.
Incidentally, while US-Turkey ties had come under strain over Sweden’s NATO bid that was initially blocked by Istanbul, the frigid relations had returned to normalcy after Turkey approved the issue. Also, the meeting assumes significance in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war and the prospects of a looming widening of the conflict in the entire West Asia.
Turkish media had also reported that Erdogan would reiterate his demand for Israel to stop attacks in Gaza and the two-state solution to the problem.
Erdogan, however, has been critical of the US in its unwavering support for Israel in its war against Hamas. In Feb. this year, the Turkish president had lashed out at the US as the reason behind the hitherto failed peace process in the region since the war broke out after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 last year.
Another key issue expected to hog the attention of the two leaders would be the sale of F-16s to Turkey and an upgrade-modernisation process for jets acquired so far.