Erdogan wants to open a “new era” with Biden after lifting the veto on Sweden in NATO

President Turkish, Recep Tayyip Erdoganhe told his US counterpart on Tuesday, Joe Bidenwho wants to open anew era” in collaboration with USAa request that comes after the Turkish leader lifted his veto on the entry of Sweden in the NATO.

Erdogan made these statements to the media at the start of a meeting with Biden on the sidelines of the summit of leaders of the NATOwhich is held between today and tomorrow in Vilnius.

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Sitting next to Biden and with the NATO logo and the flags of the two countries in the background, Erdogan began his remarks by thanking the US leader for congratulating him on his victory in the presidential elections in May, with which he will be able to continue governing other five years.

“Mr. President, my dear friend, the first thing I wanted to do is thank you for congratulating me after the elections for my current position. I am grateful for the congratulatory messages you have sent me”, Erdogan began.

The Islamist politician, who has been in power for 20 years, went on to say that “it’s time” that the heads of state of Türkiye and USA meet more often and he considered that, for this reason, the meeting between the two today “it’s a first step forward”.

“Our previous meetings were just warm-ups, but now we are entering a new era.”, Erdogan stressed.

In this regard, he affirmed that this new era of collaboration between the United States and Turkey will last for five years, the time that he has been re-elected in office, and expressed his hope that the alliance between the two countries continue with the re-election of Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

This last comment seemed to catch Biden by surprise, who laughingly replied: “Thank you. I wish to meet with you again in the next five years”.

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The meeting came after Erdogan decided to unblock the entry of Sweden to the Alliance.

The announcement about Turkey’s decision was made by the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenbergon Monday evening, one day before the start of the NATO summit and after a three-way meeting between Stoltenberg himself, Erdogan and the Swedish prime minister, ulf kristersson.

Turkey had blocked Sweden’s accession to NATO on the grounds that the Nordic country has a too lax stance on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a guerrilla group that began an armed struggle against the Turkish state in 1984 and is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, Sweden, the European Union and United States.

Following these Turkish complaints, Sweden has reformed its anti-terrorism legislation and has made it a criminal offense to merely belong to or support, financially or otherwise, a terrorist organization.

As the White House national security adviser said on Tuesday, Jake Sullivanthe United States has played a very important role in those negotiations to unblock the Swedish candidacy.

Specifically, according to Sullivan, the Biden administration took pains to make clear to Erdogan that it was willing to facilitate the delivery to Turkey of sophisticated US-made F-16 fighters, which Ankara he had been requesting for a long time and whose sale has been blocked by the US Congress.

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Bilateral relations between the United States and Turkey soured after Erdogan signed an agreement with Russia in 2017 to acquire the systems. Russian anti-missile S-400which led to the imposition of US sanctions and caused Washington to suspend the sale to Ankara of the F-35 fighters American made.

Those issues have not been resolved, but the United States continues to view Turkey as an important NATO ally.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.