6 days ago
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There was nary shortage of pomp. US President Donald Trump showered his Anatolian impermanent with flattering remarks. For Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had been denied a White House invitation under President Joe Biden, the visit had agelong been a substance of idiosyncratic ambition. The lavish reception from Trump signals a overseas argumentation reversal.
Under the reign of President Trump, Oval Office meetings person a way of generating their ain momentum – not ever to the liking of the visitor, arsenic the world has seen successful caller months. This clip was different: Trump greeted his Turkish counterpart with unusual warmth, adjacent camaraderie astatine moments. “He’s a highly respected man. He’s respected very overmuch successful his state and each passim Europe. It’s an grant to person him astatine the White House,” Trump said. The praise was somewhat undermined by his speech that the two had known each different for years – adjacent during what Trump described arsenic his ain “exile” pursuing the “rigged” US elections of 2020 – earlier adding, “You know, helium knows astir rigged elections amended than anybody.”
Anyone expecting this jab to pivot into a lecture connected antiauthoritarian principles, fixed Erdogan’s progressively authoritarian rule, was near disappointed. Turkey’s drift into authoritarianism was not connected the docket – and, clearly, not worth a word to the existent US administration.
Beyond that awkward exchange, the summit was framed astir improving bilateral relations. “We are susceptible of raising relations betwixt Turkey and the United States to a caller level,” Erdogan declared. He then named the shorthand that has defined US-Turkish defence talks – F-35 and F-16 – and, somewhat unexpectedly, mentioned the “Heybeliada School,” amended known arsenic the Theological School of Halki. Closed since 1971, the seminary connected an land adjacent Istanbul was the cardinal training crushed of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Its destiny has been a perennial flashpoint successful Greek-Turkish relations and the absorption of planetary campaigns, particularly by the influential Greek lobby successful the United States.
Turkey’s drift into authoritarianism was not connected the docket – and, clearly, not worth a word to the existent US administration
Anticipating that Trump mightiness rise the issue, Erdogan moved first: He would personally take up the substance and conscionable Patriarch Bartholomew, helium said. The patriarch had already appealed to Trump successful a White House meeting. For the Ecumenical Patriarchate, reopening Halki is existential. That Trump seized connected the contented points some to his instinctive affinity for spiritual questions and to the sway of Greek-American lobbying.
Still, the bosom of the talks laic successful arms and energy. Erdogan is pushing to modernize Turkey’s aging aerial force. While the Biden medication had approved the merchantability of further F-16 combatant jets successful instrumentality for Ankara’s consent to Sweden’s NATO accession, the F-35 programme remains highly contentious. These craft are the astir precocious multirole fighters successful work crossed NATO and allied aerial forces. Turkey had primitively signed connected arsenic a founding partner, readying to get up to 100 jets, with Turkish manufacture profoundly embedded successful the supply chain. Erdogan’s determination to acquisition Russia’s S-400 rocket defence system, however, led Washington to eject Turkey from the programme successful 2019. Since then, the Russian system has stood arsenic the immovable obstacle to immoderate normalization of defence cooperation. With bipartisan determination, US lawmakers person insisted that the S-400 beryllium scrapped earlier Turkey could ever rejoin the F-35 project.
Now Trump signaled a willingness to reopen talks. “I’m going to spot to it that we get that to him. He needs definite things and we request definite things,” helium said successful his typically vague manner, hinting astatine a imaginable deal. But immoderate arms transaction requires legislature approval, and Capitol Hill remains a formidable obstacle. A seasoned conjugation of pro-Greece and pro-Israel lawmakers is already mobilizing to artifact the arms income to Ankara.
Erdogan did not get empty-handed. On the time Trump rolled retired the reddish carpet, Turkish Airlines announced a multi-billion-dollar bid for 75 Boeing craft – 50 steadfast purchases and 25 options for its long-haul B787-9 and B787-10 fleet. Altogether, the woody covers up to 150 planes. In addition, Washington and Ankara signed a “Memorandum connected Strategic Cooperation successful Civil Nuclear Energy.” “We person launched a caller process to deepen the long-standing and multifaceted practice betwixt Turkey and the United States successful atomic energy,” Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.
Yet Trump’s ambitions spell further. In speech for a reset successful relations and imaginable arms deals, helium demanded thing little than Ankara’s vigor decoupling from Moscow. “I’d similar to person him stop buying immoderate lipid from Russia, while Russia continues this rampage against Ukraine,” Trump declared successful the Oval Office. Official figures amusement that successful 2024, 66 percent of Turkey’s lipid imports and 41 percent of its state came from Russia. These numbers exemplify the extent of Turkish-Russian vigor ties – precisely what Trump present seeks to undercut.
Reports of a $43 billion, 20-year US liquefied earthy state statement are unlikely to marque overmuch quality to this dependence. In Turkey, interest is already rising implicit soaring heating costs, arsenic Greek correspondents note.
That the summit passed without a blowup – and was adjacent described by some arsenic “historic” – owed mostly to the determination not to aerial the galore points of quality successful public. On Gaza, the disagreement could hardly beryllium starker. Asked by a newsman astir Erdogan’s position, Trump feigned ignorance: “I don’t cognize his stance. I can’t tell you astir that.” Erdogan likewise ensured that Gaza and Hamas did not spoil the celebratory mood. On his statesmanlike plane, where helium traditionally fields questions from the Turkish press, helium made nary notation of Israel oregon the war. Instead, helium offered a diplomatic gloss: Relations with the United States were processing “on the ground of communal respect.” True, not each issues tin beryllium resolved “in a single meeting,” Erdogan conceded – but the summit had allowed “substantial advancement connected galore points.”
For now, it appears Erdogan has been the 1 to widen goodwill successful advance. Time will tell whether the glittering White House reception and Trump’s warm words will beryllium worth the terms Turkey has paid.
Dr Ronald Meinardus is simply a elder probe chap astatine the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP).
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