Cozy Tillerson-Erdogan meeting in Turkey raises hope for warming ties
In a positive sign for US-Turkish ties, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held reportedly friendly and lengthy talks with Turkish leaders in Istanbul on the sidelines of a World Petroleum Congress.
After a prolonged period of sharp tensions between NATO partners Turkey and the United States, there is budding if cautious optimism shared by officials on both sides that frayed relations may be on the mend.
Hopes of a thaw emerged this week when US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Turkish leaders in Istanbul on the sidelines of a World Petroleum Congress, where the former ExxonMobil chairman was awarded a lifetime achievement prize for his career in the energy business.
Stopping on his way home from the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Tillerson held separate meetings with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
An American official who briefed Al-Monitor on the meetings said that Cavusoglu and Tillerson spoke for an hour at the Dolmabahce Palace before heading off together to the congress. Tillerson then met with Erdogan at his summer residence in Tarabya.
