President Donald Trump on Wednesday participated in an unannounced meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, following months of scrutiny over the administration’s posture toward Ankara and controversial shifts in Syria policy, Politico reports.
The meeting, which was absent from Trump’s public schedule, appeared to occur on the sidelines of a larger gathering of NATO leaders Wednesday in Watford, England, and was first announced in a post by the official Twitter account for the Turkish presidency.
In a subsequent statement, the White House confirmed the sit-down and said Trump and Erdoğan “discussed the importance of Turkey fulfilling its alliance commitments, further strengthening commerce through boosting bilateral trade by $100 billion, regional security challenges, and energy security.”
Trump elaborated on his conversation with Erdoğan during another bilateral meeting in Watford with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“We discussed Syria. We discussed the Kurds. We discussed numerous things, and we're getting along very well,” he said.
“The border and the safe zone is working out very well ... and I gave a lot of credit to Turkey for that," the president continued. “The cease-fire is holding very much so, and I think people are surprised, and maybe some day they'll give me credit, but probably not.”
