President Biden and President of Turkey Tayyip Erdogan meet after NATO Summit on June 14, 2021.
After the NATO Summit on Tuesday, President Biden held a bilateral meeting with Tayyip Erdogan, the President of the Republic of Turkey, in Brussels.
The two leaders were seen pictured together on the Turkish presidency’s Twitter account.
President Biden ensured at a press conference that he is, “Confident we’ll make real progress with Turkey and the United States.”
Those in attendance at the Turkey bilateral meeting, along with President Biden and the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan were, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, Jake Sullivan, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, Dr. Amanda Sloat, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs, National Security Council, David Satterfield, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of TurkeyKevin Boyd, and Director for Europe and Eurasia, National Security Council.
President @RTErdogan attends NATO Summit https://t.co/DblSFSc0D7 pic.twitter.com/5G6aOO0gCz
— Turkish Presidency (@trpresidency) June 14, 2021
Also in attendance were Mevlüt Çavusoglu, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hulusi Akar, Minister of National Defense, Ömer Çelik, Spokesperson of the AK Party, Murat Mercan, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to the United States, Fahrettin Altun, Director of Communications of the Presidency, and Ibrahim Kalin, Chief Advisor and Presidential Spokesperson.
Biden and Erdogan, who ended up having an initial discussion without any aides before moving to an expanded bilat with aides, were seated on opposite sides of a long rectangular table in front of their respective flags, now flanked by aides.
Blinken, Austin, and Sullivan were at the table with Biden, who stated “we had a very good meeting” as wranglers shouted at the press to leave the room.
A reporter called out to Biden, “We couldn’t hear you, sir,” he responded: “I didn’t say anything.”
According to a White House official, Biden also held individual conversations with President Pedro Sanchez of Spain, President Zuzana Caputova of Slovakia, Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic of Montenegro, President Rumen Radev of Bulgaria, Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway, Prime Minister Antonio Costa of Portugal, and Prime Minister Xavier Bettel of Luxembourg, on the margins of the NATO Summit.