Washington, DC - "The American and Turkish peoples have been friends and allies for many, many decades." ~ President Donald J. Trump
ENGAGING ON CRITICAL ISSUES: President Donald J. Trump is working to advance America’s important relationship with Turkey.
- Today, President Trump welcomed President Erdogan at the White House for bilateral discussions on a range of important issues.
- Direct engagement and diplomacy between our nations are essential to addressing the challenges facing the United States-Turkey bilateral relationship.
- Turkey’s cooperation is crucial to protecting United States interests in the region and beyond.
- The United States-Turkey relationship has benefitted both of our countries for more than 90 years.
A CRITICAL NATO ALLY: Turkey is a critical NATO Ally, and our continued cooperation is important for American interests in the region and beyond.
- The United States and Turkey work together on numerous security issues in the Middle East and around the globe.
- Within NATO, Turkey has the second largest armed forces and has raised its defense spending with the goal of reaching its 2 percent of GDP minimum obligation.
- Turkey has been a critical partner in the fight to annihilate the ISIS caliphate.
- Turkey’s continued engagement remains essential in ensuring ISIS is never allowed to reconstitute.
- Turkey continues to make important contributions to NATO’s Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan.
- Turkey is a significant partner for foreign military sales, which total in the billions of dollars.
- Turkey is not only a purchaser of American military equipment, but it is a supplier of component parts for dozens of critical United States and NATO defense programs.
- In order to achieve progress on other fronts, it is vital that we resolve the issues involving Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system, strengthening our defense partnership.
GROWING AND BALANCING ECONOMIC TIES: President Trump is working to expand commerce and achieve fair and balanced trade between the United States and Turkey.
- The United States encourages Turkey to further open its markets to American goods and services, and ensure a level playing field for our trade relationship.
- Turkey has enormous potential as a trading partner of the United States.
- Recognizing this opportunity, our two countries are working together to achieve a goal of $100 billion in bilateral trade annually.
- Turkey has been an important and growing destination for American investment.
- American investment in Turkey totaled $4.7 billion in 2018; a 9 percent increase over the previous year.
- Turkey has also been an important source of investment in the United States with $2.4 billion in investments in 2018.
