Erdoğan hopes Biden meeting will herald 'new era'

Duvar English - Reuters 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on May 26 that a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden during a NATO summit next month will mark the beginning of a new era.

“Biden's statement on the 1915 events has put an added burden on our ties, but I believe the meeting we will hold on June 14 at the NATO summit will be the sign of a new era," Erdoğan said in a video conference with several U.S. corporate executives.  

Biden waited for three months after his January inauguration to call Erdoğan, and that was as on April 23, just a day before the U.S. president declared the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 as genocide.

During their phone conversation, Erdoğan and Biden agreed to meet one-on-one during the NATO summit in June.

The first meeting between the two leaders comes at a delicate moment for Turkey-U.S. relations, as the two countries are at odds over a host of issues.

"We care about our long-standing, rooted and multidimensional alliance with the US. Although there are differences of ideas from time to time, our partnership and alliance have managed to overcome all kinds of predicaments," Erdoğan said during the video conference on May 26.

Erdoğan thanked companies that believed in Turkey and said he expects the United States to be more constructive, adding U.S. tariffs on aluminum and steel remain a problem. He said they could cooperate in Syria and in Libya including in energy.

"I believe we will make Turkey ... a base for production and technology," he told the executives via a translator in televised remarks.

"By simplifying our incentive system, we will ensure investors can take advantage of incentives easier."