Greek Prime Minister and New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis will get a face-to-face chance to make his case about Turkish provocations when he meets US President Donald Trump in Washington on Jan. 7.
It could be a pivotal moment as Trump – with the US signing new military and counter-terrorism deals with Greece and wanting a greater presence in the country – said Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a friend he’s been reluctant to act against.
Mitsotakis will have the key meeting in the Oval Office with the volatile and unpredictable Trump who has been wont to change his mind without notifying aides and fly by the seat of his pants, leaving any decisions up in the air.
The Premier’s aides told Kathimerini they hope the trip, with Mitsotakis bringing an entourage of top ministers and officials, will further strengthen relations that ironically got closer under the former ruling previously anti-American Radical Left SYRIZA.
Mitsotakis’ program also includes talks with Vice President Mike Pence who, along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will on Jan. 8 host a dinner in his honor, to which some 300 members of the Greek-American community have been invited.
The US has a key Naval base at Souda Bay on the island of Crete and Erdogan has thrown a possible monkey wrench in the works of Turkey-US relations by threatening to shut down the Incirlik base, which has US nuclear warheads and Greece, Turkey and the US in NATO.
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he will have to speak with Turkey’s defense chief to see if Erdogan is serious or spewing bombast again as he’s still upset the US wouldn’t sell Turkey F-35 fighter jets because he authorized the purchase of Russian S-400 missile defenses.
Erdogan’s threat to close Incirlik came in response to threats of US sanctions and a separate US Senate resolution that recognized mass killings of Armenians a century ago as genocide which Turkey denied happened.
“It has not been brought up to me before. The first I heard of it was reading it in the papers as you just mentioned and so I need to talk to my defense counterpart to understand what they really mean and how serious they are,” Esper told reporters.
Turkey could also close the Kurecik radar base, Erdogan added and Esper said if that proceeds there would have to be talks with NATO which has refused to intervene over Turkish provocations in the Aegean, including claiming Greek waters for energy drilling.
“They are a sovereign nation to begin with, so they have that inherent right to house or to not house NATO bases or foreign troops,” Esper said, the Reuters news agency said.. “But again, I think this becomes an alliance matter, your commitment to the alliance, if indeed they are serious about what they are saying.”
The US Congress also moved to punish Turkey over its Oct. invasion of Syria to get at the Kurds, US allies in the war on terror who were abandoned to their fate by Trump, drawing fire even within his Republican party.
“I think the issue here is once again what is Turkey’s direction with regard to the NATO alliance and the actions they are taking on any number of issues,” Esper said, the US also treading carefully, needing Turkey for the war on terrorism.
Read more at thenationalherald.com
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