After meetings Tuesday at the White House, President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, praised the strength of the two countries' relations, while at the same time sidestepping their differences over strategies for confronting Islamic State extremists in northern Syria.
Both Trump and Erdogan described bilateral ties as strong. "We've had a great relationship," the U.S. president said, "and we will make it even better."
Neither leader mentioned Trump's decision last week to supply heavy weapons to Syrian Kurdish rebel militias, the YPG, who make up a key part of a U.S.-backed alliance preparing to march on the Islamic State's de-facto capital, Raqqa, later this year.
Turkey, which has battled Kurdish separatists since 1984 in its southeast, has voiced broad opposition to the presence of YPG fighters in the anti-jihadist coalition. Erdogan has argued that YPG's ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party make it likely that any U.S. weaponry supplied to the Syrian Kurds will eventually end up in Turkey, in the hands of the outlawed PKK.
Erdogan has called the decision to provide U.S. arms "contrary to our strategic relations to the U.S." But there were no public signs of friction Tuesday, as Trump and Erdogan struck public poses suggesting full agreement on the need to capture the IS stronghold at Raqqa.
"There is no place for the terrorist organizations in the future of our region," Erdogan said.
美国总统川普和土耳其总统埃尔多安星期二在白宫举行会晤之后，赞扬了两国关系的坚强有力，但回避了在叙利亚北部抗击伊斯兰国极端分子策略上的分歧。
川普和埃尔多安都称双边关系牢固有力。川普总统说，“我们一直有着很好的关系，我们要让这种关系变得更好” 。
两位领导人都没有提及川普上周向叙利亚库尔德反叛民兵，即“库尔德人民保卫军”提供重型武器的决定。“库尔德人民保卫军”在美国支持下，将在今年晚些时候向伊斯兰国自称的首都拉卡推进的盟军中发挥重要作用。
土耳其自从1984年以来一直在东南部与库尔德分离分子作战，因此，对反圣战联盟中出现“库尔德人民保卫军”明确表示反对。埃尔多安表示，“库尔德人民保卫军”和库尔德工人党有关，因此美国提供给叙利亚库尔德人的武器，最终很可能落入土耳其境内被取缔的库尔德工人党手中。
埃尔多安曾经称，美国决定向YPG提供武器 “与我们和美国的战略关系背道而驰”。但是星期二川普和埃尔多安两人在公开场合露面时表示，双方在有必要夺取伊斯兰国设在拉卡的据点这一方面完全一致，因此并没有看到公开的分歧。
埃尔多安表示，“在我们地区的未来中，没有这个恐怖组织的藏身之地” 。