What happened at Trump-Erdogan summit

Date:29Jun2019

The focus of the Trump-Erdogan summit was Turkey’s purchase of S-400 anti-missile weapons from Russia.  Despite statements  sympthetic to Erdogan and supportive of the Turko-American relationship, our press review suggests no compromise has been reached.  After summits with Putin and Trump, Erdogan  declared  that first S-400 batteries will arrive in Turkey “in the first half of July.” Then what?  This is the best we could gather:

Turkey’s purchase of a major Russian missile defense system is “a problem”, US President Donald Trump told his Turkish counterpart in a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 on Saturday.

Washington has made clear it opposes the purchase of the Russian S-400 system, giving Turkey until July 31 to give up the deal, which it considers incompatible with Ankara’s participation in the F-35 fighter jet program.

And Trump reiterated the position in talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Japan’s Osaka where the G20 summit is being held.

“It’s a problem, there’s no question about it,” Trump said.

“It’s not good. It’s not good.”

But he added that Turkey “has been a friend of ours… We’re a big trading partner. We’re going to be much bigger.”  (Al Arabiya)

Trump didn’t say on Saturday whether he would proceed with sanctions. “It’s a complicated deal, we’re working on it,” he said. “We’ll see what we can do.”

The White House issued a statement after Trump’s meeting with Erdogan suggesting the U.S. president took a harder line than he indicated in his remarks to reporters.

“The president expressed concern about Turkey’s potential purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system, and encouraged Turkey to work with the United States on defense cooperation in a way that strengthens the NATO alliance,” the White House said. (Bloomberg)

The Turkish View

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday he was confident there would be no US sanctions against Turkey over a controversial Russian missile deal, following reassurances from leader Donald Trump at the G20 summit.

Ankara’s push to buy Moscow’s S-400 missile defence system has strained ties between the NATO allies, with the threat of penalities from Washington looming over Turkey.

“We heard from him that there won’t be anything like this (sanctions),” Erdogan told a press conference, after meeting with the US president on the sidelines of the summit in Osaka, Japan. (Business Standard)

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