Agence France Presse
March 27, 2009 Friday 9:54 AM GMT
‘Inadequate’ ties to be boosted by Obama visit: Turkish PM
ANKARA, March 27 2009
Turkish-US ties are "inadequate" and US President Barack Obama’s
upcoming visit will pave the way for a new phase in relations, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying Friday.
"I don’t think Turkish-American relations are adequate. They should be
taken forward a great deal," Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as
saying in a television interview.
"Obama’s visit will prepare a very solid ground for the future" of
bilateral ties," he said.
Obama is scheduled to visit Turkey on April 6-7. He will hold
bilateral talks in Ankara and is also expected to attend an
international forum in Istanbul aimed at fostering dialogue between
the West and Muslim countries.
Erdogan said Turkey’s role in Middle East peace efforts would be high
on the agenda of the talks with Obama, adding that Ankara was ready to
revive indirect negotiations between Israel and Syria, stalled since
the Jewish state launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip in
December.
The two sides will also discuss the withdrawal of US troops from
neighbouring Iraq, Turkey’s role in efforts to stabilise Afghanistan
and Armenian pressure on Washington to recognise the mass killings of
Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide, he said.
NATO member Turkey has been a key Muslim ally of the United States in
a strategic region between Europe, the Caucasus and the Middle East,
bordering troubled countries such as Georgia, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
Bilateral ties were strained under former US president George W. Bush
when Turkey refused to allow US troops to use its territory in the
invasion of Iraq in 2003.
During a visit to Ankara earlier this month, Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton said the new Washington administration wished to undo
Bush’s legacy and buttress relations.