(changes client identifier tag)
By Mirac Dereli and Canan Sevgili
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump will host Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Thursday, seeking to agree arms and trade deals that could help ease a series of diplomatic disputes that have dogged U.S.-Turkish ties for years.
Though the leaders’ good personal relations have helped ease bilateral strains, issues still linger between the NATO allies. Here are the main ones:
ARMS AND SANCTIONS
Turkey, a regional military power with NATO’s second-biggest army, is seeking to recoup a $1.6-billion investment in F-35 fighter jets, after Washington ousted Ankara from a joint production programme and cancelled a sale of the planes.
The U.S. action came in response to Turkey’s purchase in 2019 of Russian S-400 missile defences, which also saw its defence industry hit with sanctions.
Erdogan hopes for a breakthrough with Trump that could lift the sanctions and allow it to acquire the fighter jets again.
On Russia, Ankara remains opposed to Western sanctions over its war in Ukraine, even as it also opposes the invasion itself and has supplied Kyiv with drones and arms. Any expansion of U.S. sanctions on Russia could hurt Turkey, which maintains good ties with Moscow and is among its biggest energy buyers.
ISRAEL AND HAMAS
The United States is Israel’s biggest ally, while Turkey is among the world’s most vocal critics of the country for its operations in Gaza, which Erdogan calls a “genocide”.
Ankara has moved to shut trade with Israel, recalled its diplomats, and calls Benjamin Netanyahu’s government the biggest obstacle to regional peace.
Erdogan has called Hamas, which runs Gaza, a “resistance group”, while Trump and Western states call it a terrorist group and the U.S. has sanctioned Turkey-based members of its political wing.
SYRIA
Long the thorniest issue between the sides, Turkish and U.S. views on Syria have increasingly aligned since Syrian rebels partly backed by Turkey ousted former President Bashar al-Assad in December.
Ankara and Washington both support a strong central government under the country’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al Qaeda leader. Both have also urged the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to integrate with Damascus under a March accord.
However little progress has been made, frustrating Turkey, which sees the SDF as a terrorist group and has threatened a military incursion against it in northern Syria, where hundreds of U.S. troops remain side-by-side with the Kurdish fighters.
TARIFFS
Trump’s second term has brought positive signs for economic relations. As his administration imposed huge tariffs on some nations, a level of only 15% was applied to Turkish goods, among the lower end of the list of countries targeted.
On Monday, days ahead of the White House meeting, Erdogan’s office said it lifted additional tariffs on some U.S. imports
Trump had been blamed by some for stoking Turkey’s worst economic crisis in decades during his first term in 2018, when he slapped tariffs of 20% on Turkish aluminium and 50% on steel, in a row with Ankara over its detention of a U.S. pastor.
Those moves triggered the first in a series of crashes in the lira, which is now worth almost 90% less to the dollar, although Erdogan’s unorthodox economic policies are considered the main driver.
(Reporting by Mirac Eren Dereli and Canan Sevgili; Editing by Jonathan Spicer, Alexandra Hudson)
Comments