(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he will host Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Sept. 25 and that he expected to conclude trade and military agreements.
“We are working on many Trade and Military Deals with the President, including the large scale purchase of Boeing aircraft, a major F-16 Deal, and a continuation of the F-35 talks, which we expect to conclude positively,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Erdogan last visited the White House in 2019 during Trump’s first term, and the pair have had a checkered past.
While they had close personal bonds during Trump’s 2017-21 term as president, it was also a period of strained bilateral relations due to disputes over Washington’s ties with Kurdish fighters in Syria and over Ankara’s ties with Moscow.
Turkey angered the Trump administration in 2019 by purchasing Russian S-400 missile defenses. In response, Washington canceled a planned sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey and ousted it from a joint production program for the planes.
Turkey subsequently agreed on a deal to purchase F-16 jets.
“President Erdogan and I have always had a very good relationship. I look forward to seeing him on the 25th!” Trump wrote on Friday.
(Reporting by Costas Pitas and Bhargav Acharya; editing by Doina Chiacu)
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