Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan to meet Blinken just after Lavrov

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is scheduled to travel to Washington next week to meet his American counterpart US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, it is reported.

Foreign Ministry sources confirmed YetkinReport that the meeting will be held within the framework of the Turkey-US Strategic Dialogue Mechanism, adding that the dates of March 7-8 have not yet been finalized, but that the meeting will take place “soon”.

Fidan will be meeting with Blinken just after the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Antalya Diplomatic Forum on March 1-3. Speaking in Russian parliament on February 29, Russian President Vladimir Putin said they were prepared for dialogue with the United States, but accused “the US leadership circles” of being “hypocritical” in wanting to negotiate for strategic stability while talking about defeating Russia.

“Don’t they understand that there is a danger of a nuclear conflict?” Putin said in the same speech, referring to French President Emmanuel Macron, who said NATO countries could send troops to Ukraine.

Turkey is the only NATO member state that has had direct contact with both Ukraine and Russia in the wake of the war in Ukraine. US officials had commented on Putin’s postponed trip to Türkiye that it would be useful to convey NATO’s views directly to Russia.

Ukraine and Gaza with Blinken

This will be Fidan’s second face-to-face meeting with Blinken in two weeks, following the G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro on February 22.

The last ministerial-level Strategic Mechanism meeting between Turkey and the US was held in Washington on January 18 last year between then Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Blinken. The most prominent issues at that time were Turkey’s F-16 request, Sweden’s NATO membership and the Ukraine grain deal. Now neither Sweden nor the F-16 issue is on the agenda.

However, the Gaza Crisis is currently the most prominent issue between Turkey and the US.

Speaking separately to a US Senate delegation that arrived in Ankara on February 21 for talks with President Tayyip Erdoğan, Fidan said Turkey expects the US to use its influence on Israel to stop the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Congress on February 29 that Israel had killed more than 25,000 women and children in Gaza.

A “positive agenda”

Turkey’s singular position in the Russia-Ukraine crisis will also be on the table during Fidan’s meeting with Blinken. Turkey opposes the US request to send warships from non-Black Sea coastal NATO members because of the 1936 Montreux Treaty. If the treaty is breached, there will be no obstacle for the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean to move to the Black Sea. Ankara’s insistence on Montreux is one of the main factors preventing the war from spilling beyond Ukraine.

Although the resolution of the F-16 issue in exchange for Sweden’s NATO membership lifted a burden from Turkey-US relations, serious problems still await a solution. The fight against the PKK, Turkey’s number one security concern, is one of them. The PKK presence in Syria is supported by the US under the pretext of fighting ISIS. Likewise, the continued presence in the US of Fethullah Gülen, whom Erdogan blames for the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, is a chronic problem.

However, a “positive agenda” seems to prevail in both capitals at the moment. In this context, energy investments and increasing trade are also expected to be on the table during Fidan’s meeting with Blinken.