LONDON: UK ministers visited Turkey on Thursday to discuss NATO policy and a possible sale of military equipment ahead of a major coalition summit next week.
Days after a high-level visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss visited Ankara in hopes of letting Turkey drop its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO.
Turkey opposes Swedish and Finnish entry into the coalition because it claims Stockholm’s support for banned Kurdish groups.
Earlier in June, Kurdish activists at a rally in Sweden showed pictures of Abdulla Oklan, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has been banned by Turkey as a terrorist organization.
In response to the protests, Ankara said it would block Swedish entry into NATO, a move that angered US lawmakers, who have threatened to block a deal to sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.
Turkey was also pulled from the F-35 jet program in violation of US sanctions of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft systems.
As part of the UK-Turkey talks, Wallace met with his counterpart Hulusi Akar in Ankara. Britain is reportedly pushing for sale of Eurofighter Typhoon jets amid rumors of threats to the F-16 deal.
Qatar, a key ally of Turkey, signed a $6 billion Typhoon deal in 2017.
A UK Defense Ministry spokesman said: “The Defense Secretary is meeting his counterpart in Turkey today for regular bilateral talks on cooperation and security issues ahead of next week’s NATO summit.”
Meanwhile, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss met with senior Turkish figures, including Foreign Minister Melut Cavusoglu, to discuss defense cooperation, the NATO summit and conflicts in Ukraine as well as Syria.
The visit is taking place amid a flurry of diplomatic activities in the region. The Israeli Foreign Minister also visited Ankara after the Saudi meeting.
Ahead of his visit to Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss defense cooperation and the Ukraine conflict.