Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that he and Vice President Mike Pence will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara despite the foreign leader earlier saying he would not attend, CNBC reports.
“At this point, the vice president and I are planning to take off later this afternoon,” Pompeo said. “And we have every expectation that we will meet with President Erdogan. And it’s important, Maria, we need to have this conversation with him directly.”
The comments came during an interview with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo. They came shortly before the U.S. delegation, including Pence, Pompeo and national security adviser Robert O’Brien were scheduled to travel to Turkey in an effort to stymie the country’s military actions in neighboring Syria.
Erdogan earlier told Sky News that he would not meet with the U.S. delegation led by Pence, and would only meet with President Donald Trump, before reversing himself in comments to the Turkish press.
