U.S.-TURKISH HIGH-LEVEL MEETING REINFORCES STATUS QUO
World Markets Research Centre
Global Insight
April 14 2010
U..S.-Turkish high-level meetings at the fringes of the nuclear weapon
summit in Washington reinforced the status quo on contentious issues
such as Iran’s suspected nuclear programme and the Turko-Armenian
peace process. The Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met
with U.S. president Barack Obama for talks on the peace process,
and took part in a short trilateral meeting with Obama and outgoing
Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva to discuss sanctions
against Iran. High officials later stressed that the aforementioned
countries were making progress on finding a solution to their differing
stances and remained committed to keeping up their dialogues.
Significance:The meetings show that the U.S. and Turkish government
leaders continue to "agree to disagree" in a friendly manner, at
least in public. The Turkish government–with its emancipation from
the United States and its self-proclaimed "zero conflict" policy–is
rendering the United States’ task easier in some parts (Iraq), and
more difficult in others (Iran). Armenia is an interesting case, as
it combines the sweet-sour stance of Turkish officials on brokering a
true thaw with Armenian counterparts: Armenian and Turkish officials
remain committed to the peace process, without actually climbing
down from their hardened stances. United States-Turkish relations are
unlikely to be significantly harmed from the seemingly slow progress
in finding a joint stance at yesterday’s meeting: the two governments
need each other far too much in economic, geo-political, and security
terms to break off their diplomatic ties.