Joe Biden to meet with Erdoğan and face the global press on his last day in Rome

Papa Linc

3 years ago

Joe Biden to meet with Erdoğan and face the global press on his last day in Rome

Biden’s meeting on Sunday morning with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, relayed Saturday evening to reporters by a senior administration official, was not previously on Biden’s public schedule. The sit-down comes about a week after Erdoğan ordered 10 ambassadors — including those from the US, France, and Germany — be declared “persona non grata” after calling for the release of jailed Turkish businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala.

“Certainly, the President will indicate that we need to find a way to avoid crises like that one going forward, and precipitous action is not going to benefit the US-Turkey partnership and alliance,” the administration official told reporters in Rome, adding that the two leaders are expected to discuss Libya, and their defense relationship.

The two leaders last met one-on-one in June at NATO headquarters in Brussels, a meeting which Biden said was “positive and productive.” It was a closely watched meeting after Biden in April became the first US president in decades to recognize the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as a genocide — a move that risked a potential fracture with Turkey but signaled a commitment to global human rights.

According to the White House, the President will “host an event on global supply chain resilience through the pandemic and recovery on the margins of the G20, to coordinate with Leaders on both near- and long-term supply chain challenges and improve international coordination on all aspects of supply chain.”

He’ll also participate in two G20 sessions on climate and other sustainable development, according to the administration official.

Earlier this month, the IMF downgraded its 2021 US growth forecast by one percentage point — the most for any G7 economy — because of supply chain disruptions and weakening consumption. And as supply chain disruptions hiked prices for consumers and slowed the economic recovery, Moody’s Analytics warned that the disruptions “will get worse before they get better.”

Moody’s pointed to differences in how countries are fighting Covid-19, with China aiming for zero cases while the United States is “more willing to live with Covid-19 as an endemic disease.” The firm also cited the lack of a “concerted global effort to ensure the smooth operation” of the worldwide logistics and transportation network.

The administration official said Biden will “also have a couple of announcements related to our own national stockpile of critical minerals and metals, our own resources that we will be devoting to trade facilitation to reduce blockages at key ports around the world.”

“He’ll have a couple of other steps to announce tomorrow as well,” the official added.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday that the US expects some “solid outcomes” from Sunday’s supply chain meeting, which will include “a group of likeminded states from multiple continents to talk about how we can coordinate better to deal with both the short-term supply chain disruptions and challenges and long-term supply chain resilience.”

Biden coordinated with French President Emmanuel Macron on the matter during their bilateral meeting on Friday, according to a White House official.

Furthermore, Sullivan said the President is expected to make announcements about “capacity to have modern and effective and capable and flexible stockpiles.” The group is “working towards agreement with the other participants on a set of principles and parameters around how we collectively manage and create resilient supply chains going forward.”

The President will also hold a solo press conference Sunday afternoon ahead of Monday’s United Nations Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland. This will be Biden’s first solo press conference since the one he did in mid-June in Geneva, Switzerland, following a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Biden’s engagements with reporters have been somewhat limited throughout this first leg of his journey through Europe.

While the American press was allowed to ask questions in the room with Biden and Macron before their bilateral meeting Rome, they were entirely shut out of the President’s meeting with Pope Francis. Footage of the meeting from inside the walls of the papal state was distributed by Vatican Television.

CNN’s Matt Egan, Kate Sullivan and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

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