Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister of Turkey had contacts in Washington upon the invitation of Mr. Barack Obama, President of the United States of America on May 16, 2013.
Prime Minister Erdoğan and U.S. President Obama had a tete-a-tete meeting and later on chaired the meeting between delegations in the White House. They also held a joint press conference at Rose Garden.
Prime Minister Erdoğan offered his condolences once again to the people of the United States over the terrorist attacks in Boston and pointed out that Turkey and the United States are extremely determined to continue to fight jointly against terrorism.
“I believe this is a historic day, a historic milestone for the relations between Turkey and the United States.” emphasized Prime Minister Erdoğan.
Prime Minister Erdoğan also stressed that Turkey and the United States display a very strong cooperation on many issues that cover the Middle East to the Balkans, Eastern Mediterranean to Central Asia, including issues such as fight against terrorism and energy supply security. “While we further develop our bilateral economic and trade relations, we should also strengthen this with new agreements, with the free trade agreement. Hereby, we had the opportunity to confirm once again our common political will on this issue” said Prime Minister Erdoğan stating that it is aimed to further bilateral economic and trade relations.
Mentioning that views were exchanged on regional and international issues during their meeting Prime Minister Erdoğan said “Ending this bloody process in Syria and meeting the legitimate demands of the people by establishing a new government are two areas where we are in full agreement with the United States”. Prime Minister Erdoğan underlined that a new period of stability and peace in Iraq including all segments of the society is the common desire of Turkey and the United States. He also expressed his belief that his visit to Gaza will contribute to both Israel-Palestine peace and reconciliation between the Palestinian groups.