On March 26, 2018, President Erdoğan attended theTurkey-EU Summit in Varna, Bulgaria. During the visit, the parties exchanged views on Turkey’s European Union membership process and steps to be taken in the future regarding such membership process.
On May13-15, 2018, President Erdoğan made an official visit to the United Kingdom. President Erdoğan met with Queen Elizabeth II and UK Prime Minister Theresa May. During the joint press conference concluding the visit, President Erdoğan stated that the leaders thoroughly discussed bilateral relations and exchanged views on what can be done to maintain the cooperation between the two countries post-Brexit and to further improve it.
In the meeting of the European Council held on June 28-29, 2018, the EU leaders agreed to launch a second €3 billion tranche of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey. On August 30-31, 2018, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu visited Vienna to attend the informal meeting of Foreign Ministers of the European Union (EU) member and candidate countries. Minister Çavuşoğlu and his Dutch counterpart Stef Blok announced that the appointment of the Ambassadors will take place as soon as possible in line with the decision on normalization of Turkey-Netherlands relations. On September 7, 2018, Saban Disli was appointed as Turkey’s The Hague Ambassador while the Dutch government appointed Marjanne de Kwaasteniet as the Ankara Ambassador.
On September 4, 2018, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met with his counterpart German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Ankara. During the meeting, the ministers addressed Turkish-German bilateral relations, Turkey’s EU process and current regional and international issues.
United States
On January 3, 2018, a jury in New York federal court found Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a former executive at Turkey’s majority state-owned Halkbank, guilty on charges that included bank fraud, conspiracies to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran and to commit money laundering. He was found not guilty on a money laundering charge. In a statement made after the verdict, counsel for Mehmet Hakan Atilla announced their intent to appeal. Mehmet Hakan Atilla’s sentencing, originally set for April 11, 2018, was first postponed to May 7, 2018 and then to May 16, 2018. On May 16, 2018, a New York judge sentenced Mehmet Hakan Atilla to 32 months in prison for his participation in a scheme to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran.
On February15-16, 2018, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made an official visit to Turkey and had several meetings with President Erdoğan and Minister Çavuşoğlu to discuss prominent issues in the public agenda ofTurkey-U.S. relations. According to the joint statement released after the meeting, the two leaders reaffirmed their mutual commitment to each other’s security and defense.
On June3-4, 2018, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington. During the meeting, the leaders discussedTurkey-U.S. bilateral relations, matters related to the presence of the PYD/YPG and the PKK terrorist groups in the Syrian city of Manbij and other regional matters. According to the joint statement released after the meeting, the ministers endorsed a road map and underlined their commitment to its implementation.
On July 25, 2018, American Pastor Andrew Craig Brunson, who had been held in detention in Turkey on charges of committing crimes including spying for the PKK terror group and FETÖ, was moved from prison to house arrest, in accordance with a Turkish court ruling. In response to the detention of Brunson, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Turkey’s Ministers of Justice and Interior. On August 3, 2018, President Erdoğan ordered authorities to freeze the assets of two U.S. officials in Turkey. On August 10, 2018, Donald Trump announced on Twitter a doubling of tariffs on steel and aluminum against Turkey. On October 12, 2018, Brunson was sentenced to three years and one and a half months in prison, but his sentence was reduced to time served, he was released and his travel ban was lifted.
Russia
On April 3, 2018, President Erdoğan met in Ankara with President Putin, who came to Turkey to attend the Trilateral Summit on Syria and the 7th meeting of the Turkey-Russia High-Level Cooperation Council. During the press conference following the meeting, President Erdoğan stated that they discussed political, military, commercial, economic and cultural aspects of the bilateral relations between the two countries in the meeting.
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