President Donald Trump welcomed Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his wife to the White House amid impeachment hearings.
The meeting between the two presidents to address a crisis in relations, Trump said he was “a great fan” of the Turkish leader and that they had a “productive” encounter.
“Turkey’s acquisition of sophisticated Russian military equipment, such as the S-400, creates some very serious challenges for us and we are talking about it constantly,” Trump told a joint news conference.
“We talked about it today, we’re talking about it in the future, hopefully, we’ll be able to resolve that situation.”
Melania Trump joined Trump to welcome Tayyip and his wife. The First lady donned a double-breasted coat by Altuzarra and accessorized her look with a pair of black patent leather stiletto heels. Despite of the near-freezing temperature in Washington, D.C. Melania left her legs bare.
The Turkish lady wore a double-breasted white vest over a white mock turtleneck and matching dress pants. While the Presidents opted for navy wool coats over their navy suits.
“We’ve been friends for a long time, almost from Day 1. We understand each others’ country. We understand where we are coming from,” Trump told Erdogan as they sat next to each other in the Oval Office. “They’re highly respected in their country and in the region,” Trump said of Erdogan and his wife, Emine.
”We´re going to be expanding,’ Trump said. ‘We think we can bring trade up very quickly to about $100 billion between our countries.”
“Turkey and the United States can work together to finish Islamic State and bring peace to Syria. The most reliable US partner in the region to do this is Turkey,” Erdogan said.
After the news conference, the White House released a statement using firmer language than the two leaders.
“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 defence system, strengthening our defence partnership,” the statement said.
Trump said that he and Turkey´s president have been ‘very good friends’ for a long time and understand each other’s country.
”I understand the problems that they’ve had, including many people from Turkey being killed in the area that we’re talking about and he has to do something about that,” he said.
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