U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken invited his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu to Washington DC in an effort to improve bilateral relations.
The invitation was made for May 18, and the United States and Turkey, both NATO allies, launched an effort this week to improve and strengthen their long-strained relationship.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, Cavusoglu said talks with the United States on Turkey’s request to buy F-16 aircraft and armaments to modernise its fighters were well underway. He added that Ankara welcomes reports that the US government has sent a letter to Congress stating that the sale serves US interests and NATO.
At the same time, there was a communication with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and he informed him that the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine can now be held in Turkey.
As Cavusoglu said, there are still about 30 Turkish citizens, including their partners, trapped in Mariupol where thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the last month that the city been besieged and bombed mercilessly.
The Turkish Foreign Minister also added he had agreed with his Canadian counterpart Mélanie Joly to work to overcome the Ottawa-imposed embargo on Turkey’s defence industry, mainly related to the ban on the sale of instruments for Turkish Bayraktar T2 unmanned aerial vehicles.
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