Defense Minister Yaşar Güler and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke over the phone, discussing issues related to regional defense and security, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

The phone call also focused on Syria and bilateral relations, the ministry said in a statement posted on X.

The call came amid the transition in Syria after the earlier this month of the Assad regime.

In Syria, the U.S. has long partnered with the PKK terrorist group's Syrian wing YPG as its primary anti-Daesh partner, despite strenuous objections from Türkiye. The PKK is a designated terrorist group in the U.S. and Türkiye. Washington's support for the YPG has greatly exacerbated tensions in bilateral relations between the NATO allies.

Since Assad's fall, clashes have been ongoing between the terrorist group and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army.

Türkiye reopened its embassy in Damascus on Saturday, two days after its intelligence chief visited the Syrian capital.

Assad fled to Russia after a lightning offensive spearheaded by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) wrested city after city from his control until the opposition reached the Syrian capital.

The collapse of his rule stunned the world and sparked celebrations around Syria and beyond after his crackdown on democracy protests in 2011 triggered one of the deadliest wars of the century.