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The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, is leaving today for a visit to Washington, during which he will meet with the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.

During Cavusoglu's visit to Washington, Turkey and the United States will seek to iron out a series of differences between them as NATO allies, but expectations that more sensitive issues can be resolved are low, the agency noted.

Çavuşoğlu's meeting with Blinken is a rare case of a visit by a senior Turkish representative after the administration of US President Joe Biden distanced itself from Turkey over the increasingly authoritarian direction and policies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, limiting rights and freedoms, AP commented. .

Situated between East and West, Turkey remains of strategic importance to Washington.

In 2022, the Turkish government helped broker a crucial agreement between Russia and Ukraine that allowed millions of tons of Ukrainian grain to be transported to world markets, averting a wartime food crisis.

However, NATO allies Turkey and the US are often at odds over a number of issues, with the biggest disputes centering on Turkey's purchase of Russian anti-aircraft missile systems and US support for Kurdish fighters in Syria.

This week, Turkey's foreign minister said he expects the decision to sell Turkey F-16s to pass smoothly through the US Congress.

The US government wants to sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey

"We have reached an agreement with the (Biden) administration and it is important that the administration emphasized that the agreement is important not only for Turkey but also for NATO," Cavusoglu told reporters, adding that if the administration stands firm "then there will be no problem ".

In addition to the topic of F-16, it is expected that the focus of the talks of the foreign minister of Turkey with his American counterpart will be the American support for Kurdish formations, considered by Ankara as terrorists, and the presence in the United States of members of the FETO group (which, according to the Turkish authorities was behind the 2016 coup attempt), as well as steps to normalize relations between Turkey and Syria, Turkish media reported earlier this week.

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Turkey

Mevlut Cavusoglu