US Vice President Joe Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan emerged from a nearly four-hour meeting on Saturday, offering no indication that the US and Turkey had bridged their differences about how to deal with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or the Islamic State (IS) group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Biden announced US$135 million in US aid for Syrian civilians, with some allocated to Turkey — which is hosting 1.6 million refugees — but the two leaders did not offer details about how they were working together to ramp up Ankara’s role in the international coalition’s fight against Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq.
The setting for talks aimed at achieving common ground on Syria could not have been better: Erdogan’s elegant residence in Istanbul, overlooking the Bosphorus Bridge that connects Europe and Asia. However, if they made any deals, they did so privately.
Photo: EPA
In statements to reporters following their meeting, each touted the six-decade relationship between the two NATO allies.
However, there was no mention of Turkey’s Incirlik air base, which the US wants to use to launch strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq. Biden only briefly mentioned Turkey’s plans to train and equip moderate Syrian opposition fighters, but no details were disclosed.
Neither mentioned Turkey’s call for a no-fly zone, or safe zone, in northern Syria, where Western-backed opposition fighters would be safe from Assad’s air force. Biden said the two spoke in considerable detail about Iraq and Syria, and that he believes the US-Turkey relationship is “as strong as it has ever been.”
“We need Turkey, and I think that Turkey believes that it needs us as well,” he said.
Erdogan said he and Biden talked about Iraq, Syria as well as other global issues, and that they plan to continue to hold such discussions.
“We gladly saw that we have the same opinion with the United States on most of the issues we discussed. We confirmed our decision to improve our cooperation. Most importantly, as being two NATO allies, we confirmed once more our commitment to each other’s defense and security,” Erdogan said.
A senior administration official said the meeting was not without progress and that both leaders achieved more clarity about the needs of both countries. The official said the US and Turkey agree that the Islamic State group needs to be defeated, that moderate Syrian forces need to be trained, including at one base in Turkey, and that a political transition is needed in Syria that does not include Assad.
The official was not authorized to publicly disclose details of the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Biden said in a statement that the new aid money would raise the amount of assistance the US has provided to more than US$3 billion since the crisis in Syria began.
The new funding is to help feed vulnerable people inside Syria; Syrian refugees in Turkey; and Syrian refugees in other neighboring countries. More than 190,000 Syrians from Kobane fled to Turkey in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, about 300 people protested Biden’s visit to Turkey, chanting: “Biden get out. This country is ours.” The demonstration occurred on the European side of Istanbul, as Biden was on his way to a meeting with Erdogan on the Asian side of the city.
Biden did not see the protest, organized by the Youth Association of Turkey, the same group that roughed up three US Navy sailors while chanting “Yankee, go home!” a week ago in Istanbul.
The protesters threw red paint at the sailors and briefly succeeded in putting white sacks over their heads. The servicemen, who were not hurt, were from the USS Ross, a guided-missile destroyer then docked on an inlet of the Bosphorus Strait in the Black Sea.
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