President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden on Tuesday met in Indonesia to discuss bilateral and regional issues.
The meeting came on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Indonesia's Bali island.
According to the statement released by Ankara, the bilateral relations between the two countries, especially trade and security issues, were discussed during the meeting.
As the statement said, Biden expressed condolences to Türkiye and Erdoğan over the Istanbul terrorist attack.
He also thanked Erdoğan for his efforts to solve the problem in the grain corridor between Russia and Ukraine and to ensure the resumption of shipments.
On July 22, Türkiye, the United Nations, Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement in Istanbul to resume grain exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports, which had been paused in February due to Russia's war on Ukraine.
The parties are currently negotiating a possible extension and expansion beyond its Nov.19 deadline, with Erdoğan saying that Ankara is determined to transfer Russian grain and fertilizers to less-developed countries.
The landmark Türkiye-brokered agreement helped stave off a global food crisis, as Russia and Ukraine are two of the world's biggest grain exporters. But Moscow has complained about the deal's implementation, saying it still faces difficulty selling fertilizer and food due to Western sanctions.
Most recently, the United States, United Kingdom and European Union called for the extension of the Ukraine grain deal mediated by Türkiye and the U.N. to facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.
Biden further told Erdoğan that he will continue to support Ankara's F-16 fighter jets purchase, adding Türkiye is an "important actor" in Sweden's NATO accession process.
The process of the U.S. approving the sale of F-16 fighter jets to NATO member Türkiye is going well and could be completed within a couple of months, Ankara said recently.
Türkiye has been seeking to modernize its existing warplanes to update its air force and sought to buy 40 Lockheed Martin F-16 jets and nearly 80 modernization kits from the U.S. after the purchase of F-35s fell through.
Talks on the deal were expected to gain pace after two amendments that put conditions on a potential sale to Türkiye were last month reportedly removed from a Senate version of a bill that created a new hurdle for any deal.
Biden has said he supports the sale and that he would work to convince lawmakers to deliver the F-16 jets for Türkiye’s air force.
On Oct. 31, 2021, Erdoğan 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 to 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 Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu 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 by both countries.
Türkiye-U.S. relations have been strained in recent years due to the latter's cooperation with the PKK terrorist group's Syrian offshoot YPG, 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, throughout which it has managed to eliminate a significant number of terrorists from the region.
Most recently, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said on Monday that Türkiye will not accept the condolences issued by the U.S. 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, 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 U.S. among the countries sending their condolences and said Ankara does not accept Washington's sentiments. "This message of condolences 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.
