Turkey and the US held their largest joint military exercises in at least seven years, a sign of improving ties as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeks another meeting with Joe Biden next month.
Turkey sees the joint military exercises as recognition by Washington of Ankara’s importance as a NATO ally in a region criss-crossed by conflicts, the officials said. Erdogan last month dropped his long-held opposition to Sweden’s NATO membership in a bid to improve ties with the US and buy American-made F-16 fighter jets.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, visited the Turkish port city of Antalya last week. Joint naval and combat drills involving Turkish F-16 and US F-18 jets marked the largest joint exercises since bilateral ties hit a low in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt against Erdogan in 2016, Turkish officials said.
American officials invited Erdogan’s son-in-law Selcuk Bayraktar, who has led Turkey’s development of Bayraktar drones, to the aircraft carrier in a symbolic gesture.
