Trump-Erdogan meeting at White House to repair US-Turkey ties

US President Donald Trump is set to meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on November 13 which will decide the future of flailing ties of both countries. Once an admirer of the Turkish President, Trump had recently slammed Erdogan for the Syrian offensive and asked him not to be a “fool”. 

Threats and warnings

During Turkey’s offensive against Syrian Kurds, Trump warned Erdogan of sending thousands of troops and win militarily or hit them with financial sanctions.

“President Trump communicated to him very clearly that the United States of American wants Turkey to stop the invasion, implement an immediate ceasefire and to begin to negotiate with Kurdish forces in Syria to bring an end to the violence,” said Vice President Mike Pence.

All of this led to an agreement with Turkey for a five-day ceasefire but Erdogan kept threatening of yet another offensive. “If America does not keep to its promises, our offensive will continue from where it left off, with a much greater determination”, Erdogan said.

“There is no place for them (Kurdish fighters) in Syria’s future. We hope that with Russia’s cooperation, we will rid the region of separatist terror”, he added.

Read: Turkey Made No Fuss On Arrest Of Baghdadi's Wife, Unlike US: Erdogan

Blame game between the two countries

While Turkey has accused the United States of failing to fulfil its promise to remove a Kurdish Militant group from the Syrian border area, Trump Administration is unhappy with Turkey’s decision to purchase S-400 air defence system from Russia. Robert O’Brien, the National Security Adviser to President Trump, went on to say that Turkey can face US sanctions in case it doesn’t get rid of the Russian system.

Read: Trump To Confront Turkey About Buying Russian Defence System

Trump-Erdogan relation

Among all the US-Turkey tussle, Trump has not shied away from admiring and acknowledging Erdogan’s effort towards fighting Islamic State. On November 7, Trump said that he had a good discussion with Erdogan where they talked about the eradication of terrorism, ending of hostilities with the Kurds and Turkey’s border issue with Syria. Their meeting will be focussed on resolving the ongoing tension between the two countries which can affect America’s future policy in the Middle-East.

Read: Erdogan: Turkey Will Not Leave Syria Before Other Countries Do

Read: Erdogan Says US Is Not Fulfilling Its Syria Agreement Ahead Of Talks

(With Inputs from Agencies)