Turkey is sending a top diplomat to the United States for political consultations as part of efforts by the two countries to repair fraught ties, Ahval News reports.
Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal starts a two-day trip to Washington D.C. on Thursday. He will meet with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland during the visit, the Turkish government said in a statement.
“Bilateral relations, regional issues and international developments are planned to be discussed in the framework of comprehensive political consultations to be held between the delegations during the visit,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
Relations between the two NATO countries have reached the lowest point in decades after Turkey fought Kurds allied with the United States against Islamic State in Syria (ISIS) and bought S-400 air defence missiles from Russia. Former U.S. President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Turkey’s defence industry in January after Ankara refused to mothball or return the missiles that it purchased in 2019.
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President Joe Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met at a NATO summit in Brussels in mid-June to discuss how to mend relations. An agreement in principle that Turkey would continue to provide security at the international airport in Kabul after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan raised hopes of an improvement in ties. But the Taliban’s earlier than anticipated seizure of the capital has scuppered those plans.