The meeting between the American president, Joe Biden and the Turkish president, Tayyip Erdogan, which took place on the sidelines of the Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, has ended.

According to the first information, the two leaders agreed that the relations between the two countries “are entering a new stage”, while the Turkish president, in fact, did not fail to wish Joe Biden for the US presidential elections in 2024.

After the meeting, the Turkish president said that Turkey is “starting a new approach” with the US and added that the previous meetings with Biden were a “warm-up. Now we are starting a new process,” Anadolou reported.

Erdogan said he believed it was time for head-of-state consultations with the US as part of the strategic mechanism. “I see this meeting as the first step towards that,” he added.

“Now you are preparing for the upcoming elections,” Erdogan said in his meeting with Biden on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Lithuania. “And, with the upcoming elections, I want to take this opportunity to wish you the best of luck,” he added.

Laughing, Biden replied, “Thank you … I look forward to meeting with you in the next five years.”

US President Joe Biden today thanked his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for the “courage” he showed when he dropped his opposition to Sweden joining NATO.

In the meeting the two leaders had on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Biden hailed the positive outcome of a major diplomatic effort aimed at stopping Erdogan from blocking Sweden’s candidacy.

“Thank you for your diplomacy and your courage. And thank you for your leadership,” Biden said to Erdogan.

Biden had spoken with Erdogan on the phone for an hour on Sunday as well, while on the presidential plane carrying him to Europe, in an attempt to break the deadlock and avoid a failure of the summit in Vilnius.

Sweden’s accession to NATO after Finland is one of the main agenda items of the summit.

On Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that Turkey had agreed to send Sweden’s NATO Accession Protocol to parliament following a tripartite meeting between himself, Erdogan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

The closed-door meeting was held at the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Center (LITEXPO), the venue for the two-day NATO meeting that began earlier in the day.