The Foreign Minister of Turkey Hakan Fidan is visiting today and tomorrow (March 7 and 8). Washingtonwhere he will have a meeting with his American counterpart Anthony Blinken within the framework of the United States-Turkey Strategic Mechanism.

In a statement from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is stated that the two ministers will discuss the bilateral relations as well as regional and global developments. Hakan Fidan’s meeting with Anthony Blinken is scheduled for tomorrow, Friday.

Fidan’s visit to Washington was preceded by the Turkish intelligence chief’s trip to the US MIT Ibrahim Kalin, who had meetings with CIA chief William Burns and other US officials.

The last one-on-one meeting between Fidan and Blinken took place last month at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

On the agenda are the F-16s, Gaza and the Northern Mediterranean

One of the topics on the agenda is the process of supplying 40 young people from Turkey F-16 Block-70 and modernization of 79 existing F-16s of the Turkish Fleet, as it enters the phase of negotiations, after the sending by the American side of the plans of the Letters of Offer and Acceptance. Turkey wants part of the production and modernization to be done by the domestic industry.

US-Turkish relations entered a normalization phase after Turkey approved Sweden’s accession to NATO, in exchange for the removal of obstacles from the US side to the sale of fighter jets. Ankara settled on the F-16 purchase when it was kicked out by the US from the F-35 advanced 5th generation fighter program, following Russia’s purchase of the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system.

The Turkish side is also pressing the issue of US policy towards Kurdish forces in northern Syria, which Turkey describes as terrorists and an offshoot of the separatist Kurdish PKK organization that acts against Turkey. Relations between the two sides reached a critical point last October when US forces stationed in northeastern Syria, supporting the Kurdish-controlled Syrian Democratic Forces, shot down a Turkish drone.

High on the agenda of the talks is the war on Gauzethe developments in Eastern Mediterraneanthe war in Ukrainerelations with Russiathe allied presence in the Black Sea, Turkey’s relations with Africa, developments in the Caucasus, etc.

A visit by Erdogan is also possible

Asked last week if Recep Tayyip Erdogan is planning a visit to the United States to meet with his American counterpart Joe Biden, Hakan Fidan replied that the Turkish president is currently busy with local elections and the US elections are coming up, but not ruled out a visit in the interim.