US and Turkey want to improve relations, claims Turkey Foreign Minister

Ankara: ‘An agreement has been reached, to make efforts for improving the relations between NATO members US and Turkey, which had reached a ‘Critical Level’’, declared Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu. The Turkish Foreign Minister also clarified that the United States and Turkey will have a combined military base in ‘Manjib’. Cavusoglu gave this information after his meeting with the US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson.

Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson visited Turkey on Thursday, prior to his visit to the European nations, after visiting the Arab Gulf nations. This visit by Tillerson was completely unscheduled. During the visit, the US Secretary of State first met the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and then Foreign Minister Cavusoglu. President Erdogan and Secretary of State Tillerson’s meeting lasted for more than three hours. During the meeting President Erdogan had clear and open discussions with the US Secretary of State, said Cavusoglu. The US declared that there will be one more round of discussions between the representatives of the two countries in the month of March.

Subsequently, the points of discussions were disclosed by the Secretary of State Tillerson and his counterpart Cavusoglu. Secretary of State Tillerson underlined that terrorists were a common target for the US and Turkey in the Syrian conflict. Therefore, the US and Turkey have agreed to fight this danger jointly, said Secretary of State Tillerson. At the same time, the US and Turkey have given primary importance to the city of ‘Manjib’ in northern Syria. A joint army of both the NATO member nations will be deployed in this region.

Turkey demanded that the US should stop co-operation with the Kurds in Syria. US was appealed to not co-operate with the Kurds in the Manjib region, informed Covusoglu. According to the claims by the government sources, President Erdogan discussed other issues in Syria with Secretary of State Tillerson. Tillerson is going to spend two days in Turkey and his next program is not clear.

Meanwhile, the US had announced of deploying an army of 30 thousand Kurds from Manjib up to the northern Syrian border area. Turkey had expressed displeasure about this deployment and asked the US to withdraw its co-operation to the Kurds. But, as the US announced continuation of its co-operation with the Kurds, Turkey intensified the action in Syria. After Turkey attacked the region having the deployment of the US soldiers and Kurd rebels, the tension between Turkey and US had escalated immensely.