Erdogan, Biden meet on sidelines of G-20 summit

Erdogan, Biden meet on sidelines of G-20 summit

BAKU. TurkicWorld:

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden on Tuesday met in Indonesia to discuss bilateral and regional issues, reports TurkicWorld with the reference to Daily Sabah.

The meeting came on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali island.

No further information was released yet about the meeting.

On Oct. 31, 2021, Erdogan and Biden met in Rome and agreed to establish a strategic mechanism that promotes high-level dialogue and addresses issues on which Türkiye and the U.S. do not fully agree, along with issues they are working on.

During the April 4 visit of the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland to Ankara, the Türkiye-U.S. Strategic Mechanism was launched. On May 18, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlur Cavusoglu and his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken met in New York for the first meeting of the Türkiye-U.S. Strategic Mechanism "to reaffirm their strong cooperation as partners and NATO Allies," according to a joint statement both countries.

Türkiye-U.S. relations have been strained in recent years due to the latter's cooperation with the PKK terrorist organization's offshoot YPG in Syria, its stance toward the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), disagreements over Türkiye's purchase of Russia's S-400 air defense system and Washington's sanctions against Türkiye.

The PKK is a designated terrorist organization in the U.S., Türkiye, and the European Union, and Washington's support for its Syrian affiliate has been a major strain on bilateral relations with Ankara. The U.S. primarily partnered with the YPG in northeastern Syria to fight the Daesh terrorist group. On the other hand, Türkiye strongly opposed the YPG's presence in northern Syria. Ankara has long objected to the U.S.' support for the YPG, a group that poses a threat to Türkiye and that terrorizes local people, destroying their homes and forcing them to flee.

Under the pretext of fighting Daesh, the U.S. has provided military training and given truckloads of military support to the YPG, despite its NATO ally's security concerns. The U.S. has said it is cooperating with the YPG in northern Syria to fight the terrorist group Daesh, but Turkish officials say using one terrorist group to fight another makes no sense, morally or otherwise. Underlining that one cannot support one terrorist group to defeat another, Türkiye conducted its own counterterrorism operations, over the course of which it has managed to eliminate a significant number of terrorists from the region.

Most recently, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said Monday that Türkiye will not accept the condolences issued by the United States over Sunday's terrorist attack that claimed six lives on Istanbul's Istiklal Street. His remarks followed statements by Turkish officials hitting out at those who support terrorist groups, including the PKK and its Syrian wing YPG, the culprit in Sunday's attack.

"We know what the message of the perpetrators of this attack was. We received the message and let them make no mistake and we will duly respond to their message," the minister said, referring to Türkiye's counterterrorism efforts that took place in Syria and Iraq in recent years, in a bid to curb the power of terrorist groups from PKK/YPG to Daesh.

Soylu singled out the United States among the countries sending their condolences and said Ankara does not accept Washington's sentiments. "This message of condolence should be interpreted as 'killers always arrive on the scene first.' We will certainly give a clear answer to this message," the minister cryptically said.