U.S. President Joe Biden thanked President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his courage, leadership and diplomacy in the aftermath of the two-day NATO summit that took place in Vilnius, Lithuania.
In a video message posted on Twitter, Biden said he hoped the summit can strengthen NATO's defense.
Yesterday, Türkiye reached a historic agreement on the admission of Sweden into NATO. President Erdoğan, thank you for your courage, leadership, and diplomacy.
This summit reaffirms our commitment to the NATO defense, and I hope we can continue to make it even stronger. pic.twitter.com/RVfPIVrLr6
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 12, 2023
The two leaders had fruitful talks on the sidelines of the summit, as Erdoğan said Türkiye-U.S. relations would enter a new period following the meeting.
On Wednesday, Erdoğan expressed confidence about the U.S. sale of F-16 fighter jets to Türkiye.
The meeting marked the culmination of a flurry of high-level diplomatic engagements between Türkiye and the U.S. in the run-up to the Vilnius summit, including three phone calls between Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in five days and Sunday’s phone call between Erdoğan and Biden.
