A senior diplomat from the United States and her Turkish counterpart reaffirmed their nations' bilateral "strategic relationship," the State Department said Monday, while the two countries are preparing to hold the first Foreign Ministers-level meeting of the Turkey-U.S. Strategic Mechanism.
Meeting in Washington, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal "discussed the two countries' many areas of bilateral cooperation," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.
The meeting came two days before Secretary Antony Blinken is slated to meet his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in New York.
"Deputy Secretary Sherman thanked Deputy Foreign Minister Önal for Turkey's strong and vocal support of Ukraine and discussed the need for solidarity among NATO Allies and partners in confronting Russia's premeditated, unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine and in imposing real costs on Putin and his cronies," added Price, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Çavuşoğlu on Tuesday is set to begin a four-day visit to New York to attend a global forum on migration, the Foreign Ministry also said late Monday.
The minister will pay an official visit to New York "to attend the first-ever International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) within the margins of the United Nations General Assembly," said a ministry statement.
In addition, Çavuşoğlu will also attend the Global Food Security Call to Action ministerial meeting to be hosted by Blinken and hold bilateral meetings, the statement added.
Çavuşoğlu and Blinken will "hold the first Foreign Ministers-level meeting of the Turkey-U.S. Strategic Mechanism," and Çavuşoğlu is expected to meet members of the Turkish American community in New York as well, it added.
The announcement came on the sidelines of a meeting between Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal and the U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in the capital Ankara.
"In keeping with the commitment made by Presidents (Recep Tayyip) Erdoğan and (Joe) Biden during their meeting in Rome in October 2021, Turkey and the United States launched the Turkey-U.S. Strategic Mechanism on April 4 in Ankara," said the joint press release.
Erdoğan and Biden had agreed in October to undertake the "Strategic Mechanism" talks, for which officials have now cleared the way.
The announcement of the new mechanism comes after the decades-old partnership between the two NATO allies, Turkey and the U.S., saw unprecedented tumult in recent years over disagreements on many issues, including Syria and Ankara’s closer ties with Moscow. There are additional sources of strain for the two countries, including the U.S. support for the PKK's Syrian branch YPG, whom Turkey considers terrorists; and the continued U.S. residency of Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) figures including its head Fetullah Gülen, who plotted the failed coup attempt against the Turkish government in 2016.
The PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Turkey 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 in its fight against the Daesh terrorist group, but Turkey has strongly opposed the YPG's presence in northern Syria.
Moreover, the U.S. sanctioned the Turkish defense industry in December 2020 over its pıurchase of Russian S-400s missile systems and has expelled its ally from its F-35 fighter jet program. Ankara has called the moves unjust, but the allies have since been working to set aside differences and focus on cooperation, including on Ukraine.