urkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that his meeting with his American counterpart Joe Biden on June 14 opened a "new era" between the two countries after years of tension in their relations.
"We believe that we have opened the doors to a new era with the United States based on positive and constructive foundations," Erdogan told reporters after a cabinet session he chaired.
Erdogan stressed that the Turks "are determined to make the most of the positive atmosphere we reached with Mr. Biden by strengthening channels of dialogue with the United States at all levels," according to Anatolia.
The two presidents met on June 14 on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Brussels, in their first meeting since Biden took office.
Relations between the United States and Turkey are tense against the backdrop of a set of issues starting with Ankara’s purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system, the Americans’ support for Kurdish factions in Syria, and Washington’s refusal to hand over to the Turkish authorities the preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of masterminding the coup attempt against Erdogan in 2016. .
In response to Turkey receiving the first battery of the Russian S-400 system in 2019, the United States excluded Ankara from the program to manufacture the F-35 stealth fighter, arguing that Russian missiles could penetrate the technological secrets of the fighter and were incompatible with NATO´s military arsenal.
Since then, Turkey has insisted on returning it to this program, stressing that the deployment of the Russian system will not have any impact on the defense systems of the Atlantic.
Turkish-American relations have deteriorated since Joe Biden succeeded Donald Trump in the White House in January, especially Biden´s recognition of the Armenian genocide under the Ottoman Empire during World War I, which angered Ankara.
During the meeting in Brussels, Erdogan discussed with his American counterpart the possibility of keeping Turkish forces in Afghanistan after the American withdrawal from that country scheduled for September.
On June 17, the United States welcomed Turkey´s pledge to provide security protection at Kabul airport immediately upon the departure of US forces.
