(Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is working to secure a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, potentially by late April, Bloomberg News said on Tuesday, citing Turkish officials familiar with the matter.
Erdogan sees closer U.S.-Turkey ties as crucial for regional stability, particularly as Ankara seeks a bigger role in mediating conflicts from Ukraine to Syria, the report added.
Erdogan’s office and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comments.
In the battle against militant group Islamic State in Syria, the United States is allied with a Syrian Kurdish militia that Turkey regards as a terrorist group. Turkey has sharply criticised this U.S. stance as a betrayal of a NATO ally.
Turkey’s 2019 purchase of Russian S-400 missile defence systems also led to U.S. sanctions and the country’s removal from the F-35 fighter jet program.
On Sunday, Erdogan spoke by telephone with Trump, discussing efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and to restore stability in Syria.
He told Trump that Turkey supported his “decisive and direct initiatives” to end the war between Russia and Ukraine and would continue to strive for a “just and lasting peace”, Erdogan’s office said in a statement.
(Reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue and Clarence Fernandez)
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