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Shkruar nga PamfletiThursday's meeting with President Donald Trump is expected to pave the way for Turkey to buy everything from fighter jets to liquefied natural gas worth more than $50 billion.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit the White House for the first time in six years, bringing with him a series of agreements aimed at repairing strained relations between two members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - Turkey and the United States.
Today's meeting with US President Donald Trump is expected to pave the way for Turkey to buy everything from Lockheed Martin fighter jets and Boeing planes to more than $50 billion worth of liquefied natural gas, according to Turkish officials, who asked not to be identified because the deals have not yet been finalized, Bloomberg writes .
Erdogan sees the meeting as a chance to improve relations that have been strained by Russian arms purchases, diplomatic disputes and tariffs on both sides. Turkey still depends on U.S. military and diplomatic support to maintain its regional influence, and investors see its role in a Western alliance as essential to the growth of the Middle East's largest economy.
Expectations of a thaw in relations with Washington have supported Turkish markets, with government debt and stocks boosted by Trump's announcement of a visit to the White House last week.
“Erdogan wants to use the Trump presidency to reshape and improve Turkey-U.S. relations, with a focus on improving defense ties,” said Emre Peker, director of Eurasia Group Europe in London. “The energy and defense deals that Erdogan is seeking are key pillars of a mutually beneficial and transactional relationship, which will also appeal to Trump’s interest in making deals.”
The two leaders have come a long way since their difficult meeting at the White House in November 2019. After Trump pledged earlier that year to withdraw troops from Syria, Turkey launched a military incursion against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, prompting Washington to impose sanctions on several Turkish ministers.
The alliance narrowly avoided collapse when then-Vice President Mike Pence brokered a ceasefire, allowing US-backed forces to move out of the Turkish line of fire.
Turkey is relying on US help to reach an agreement between Kurdish fighters in Syria and forces loyal to the new government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus.
Ankara has viewed Kurdish groups in Syria as an extension of the PKK, the insurgent organization that fought for more than four decades. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, and recently agreed to lay down its arms.
But Turkish officials fear that some PKK fighters could slip into Syria and continue to pose a threat from there, using US-supplied weapons originally intended for the fight against the Islamic State.
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