Iraq’s new president, Barham Salih, is due to meet with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Ankara tomorrow on his first formal visit to Turkey since being elected to the post in October.

Salih’s meeting comes at a critical moment as Turkey seeks to influence the timing and logistics of a declared withdrawal of US troops from northern Syria, escalates its military pressure on Kurdish militants in Iraq and grapples with the fallout from US sanctions on neighboring Iran.

Salih’s post is largely ceremonial, but unlike his predecessor Fuad Massoum, the veteran Kurdish politician is already keeping a high profile, jetting to Tehran on his first formal trip abroad and touring Gulf capitals last month.

Ankara began wooing the Iraqi leader early on, dispatching Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to meet with him in October and extend Erdogan’s invitation. The outreach marks something of a turnaround, as Salih’s roots are in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the main Iraqi Kurdish parties that has traditionally enjoyed close ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The Kurdish rebels whose insurgency inside Turkey is orchestrated from their headquarters in the Qandil Mountains separating Iran from Iraq move freely in the PUK’s Sulaimaniyah stronghold.