Biden to warn Turkey's Erdogan against 'precipitous' actions
U.S. President Joe Biden reaches out to shake hands with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a group photo at the G20 summit in Rome, Italy October 30, 2021. Evan Vucci/Pool via REUTERS
ROME: US President Joe Biden will warn Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting on Sunday (Oct 31) that any precipitous actions would not benefit US-Turkish relations and that crises should be avoided, a US official said on Saturday.
Erdogan earlier this month ordered 10 envoys to be declared "persona non grata" for seeking the release of jailed philanthropist Osman Kavala, before withdrawing the threat.
"Certainly the president will indicate that we need to find a way to avoid crises like that one going forward and precipitous action is not going to benefit the US-Turkey partnership and alliance," the official told reporters.
Biden, who is in Rome for the G20 summit, will also discuss Turkey's request to purchase F-16 fighter jets, its defence relationship with the United States as well as a range of regional issues such as Syria and Libya.
US. lawmakers have urged the Biden administration not to sell F-16s to Turkey and threatened to block any such exports, on the grounds that Turkey had purchased Russian missile defence systems and "behaved like an adversary".
Reuters reported earlier this month that Turkey had made a request to the United States to buy 40 Lockheed Martin-made F-16s and nearly 80 modernisation kits for its existing warplanes.
