F-35, bilateral trade high on agenda as Erdoğan, Trump meeting kicks…

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the White House late Wednesday for a meeting that will focus on crucial matters such as Turkey’s acquisition of F-35 fighter jets and the bilateral trade volume between the two countries.

“Our $20 billion-worth trade with Turkey can easily be increased to $100 billion. We’re looking forward to that,” Trump said ahead of the closed-door meeting.

There was a positive atmosphere during the initial press conference, with Trump saying “We’re great friends with President Erdoğan. We understand each other and our bilateral concerns.”

“We will also discuss Russia’s S-400 missile system and the U.S. fighter jet F-35,” he added.

Turkey has been at odds with the United States over its deal with Russia for S-400 missile systems. The U.S. suspended Turkey, a fellow NATO member, from its F-35 stealth fighter program in reaction to Ankara’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system. Washington argued the S-400 would be incompatible with NATO systems and expose the F-35 to possible Russian subterfuge. Turkey, however, emphasized the S-400 would not be integrated into NATO systems and would not pose a threat to the alliance and refused to step back from the deal.

Initially having ordered 30 F-35 jets, Turkey intended to buy 116 stealth fighter jets, and the country has already received four of them. However, although Turkey has fulfilled all the necessary financial commitments to the program, its four F-35 fighter jets will not be delivered and the training of the Turkish pilots was suspended.

Trump also touched upon Turkey’s fight against the Daesh terrorist group. “Turkey is actively watching ISIS (Daesh) fighters. They were all over the place when I became president. Turkey has recently captured over a 100 ISIS fighters. They’re taking care of them,” he said, using an alternate acronym for the terrorist group.