Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will meet with US President Joe Biden at the White House on May 9, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, as they seek ways to boost defense and trade ties.
Erdoğan’s impending visit to Washington occurs as the Israel-Hamas war continues in Gaza and after Iran and Israel attacked each other’s territory, generating fears that a wider Middle East conflict could be approaching. Turkey is a key US ally in the Middle East that also provides some military support to Ukraine against invading Russian forces.
The two leaders are also meeting at a delicate time in their political careers. Biden faces a rematch with his 2020 opponent, former president Donald Trump, in November’s election. A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll this week found that Biden is ahead in just one of the seven states most likely to determine the outcome.
Erdoğan, who has led Turkey since 2003, suffered an embarrassing defeat in municipal elections last month, with voters across the nation turning against his Justice and Development Party (AKP). Although parallels cannot be easily drawn, in both countries inflation has contributed to a sense of gloom and anger at the governments in power.
Erdoğan, however, continues to play a prominent role on the international stage. Today, for instance, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is scheduled to visit İstanbul to seek the Turkish president’s support to become the next secretary general of NATO.
Last weekend, Erdoğan met with Hamas’s political leader to discuss a potential permanent cease-fire and accelerated humanitarian aid to Gaza. Unlike the US and the European Union, Turkey doesn’t consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
Turkey and the US recently held talks to improve security and energy ties and ramp up purchases of Turkish explosives to support Ukraine against Russia. The two countries confirmed plans to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells — desperately needed by Ukraine against Russian forces — by next year. With the two largest armies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, they have good reason to maintain their seven-decade alliance.
Ties have been strained by Turkey’s acquisition of a Russian S-400 missile-defense system and US support for a Syrian Kurdish militia that Turkey views as a mortal threat, among other disputes.
The US moved ahead with a $23 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets, missiles and bombs to Turkey after Ankara’s ratification of Sweden’s NATO membership in January.
Turkey now wants the US to lift sanctions on its defense industry that were imposed over the S-400 system, which NATO members worry might pose a risk to fifth-generation F-35 stealth warplanes. Erdoğan is expected to negotiate the reimbursement of $1.4 billion that Turkey previously paid to the US for the purchase of the aircraft.
Washington has long demanded that Ankara get rid of the S-400s, but Turkey has signaled it would rather keep them even if it means not being able to buy F-35s.