Turkey will take the lead in defending Kabul airport after US troops leave, Biden and Erdoğan agree.
President Joe Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan agreed when they met in Brussels this week for Turkey to take the lead in protecting Kabul airport while the United States withdraws troops from Afghanistan, a US official said.
But the two leaders have not been able to resolve a long-running dispute that has strained relations between Washington and Ankara over Turkey’s purchase of Turkey and Russian S-400 weapons, the official said.
U.S. Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Thursday that Biden and Erdoğan, at their NATO summit on June 14, had discussed security at Afghanistan.
Erdoğan called for help from the US to secure the airport and Biden volunteered to provide assistance, Sullivan told Reuters reporters.
“A clear commitment from the leaders was established for Turkey to lead them in protecting Hamid Karzai International Airport and we are now working on what we can do to get there,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan’s remarks provide the first details of the US side in a meeting between Biden and Erdoğan who informed the US President Ankara cannot change his mind on the Russian S-400 machine.
The purchase of Ankara Russian weapons has disrupted US plans to sell Turkey an F-35 fighter jet. Washington has done removed Ankara from the F-35 fighter jet and he pronounced sentence on them.
“I said [Biden] not to expect Turkey to take any part in the F-35 and S-400 issues because we did what we were supposed to do with the F-35s and provided the necessary funding, “Erdoğan told reporters on a return trip from Azerbaijan on Thursday.
“We need to keep an eye on the situation. We will be pursuing all our rights, ”he said.
Turkey and the US have been at loggerheads over many other issues including legal differences in Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean.
The two leaders did not do well when they met but did not say how much progress they had made. One joint venture could be in Afghanistan, where Ankara volunteered to oversee and operate the Kabul airport after US and NATO forces withdrew in the coming weeks.
Air security is critical to international operations in Afghanistan as Western troops withdraw.
Last week, a Taliban spokesman said Turkey needs to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in the 2020 US military coup but Sullivan says the Taliban’s comments did not undermine “certainty and efficiency”. security plan The US is working together.
“Obviously, we are deeply concerned that the Taliban or others in Afghanistan will invade the Western or other countries … We do not believe that what the Taliban have openly said should or will prevent the current efforts to establish security,” Sullivan said.
As President, Biden has taken a cooler statement from Donald Trump to Erdoğan. Biden quickly recognized the Armenian genocide in 1915 as genocide and Biden has begun to criticize Turkish history.
It is not known if Biden discussed human rights with Erdoğan at his meeting and Sullivan did not say much about how, if possible, interest in the S-400s would have been eliminated.
“They talked. There was no choice in the matter. There was a commitment to continue negotiations on the S-400 and the two groups will follow through on what is coming at the conference, “he said.
