U.S. Vice President to discuss Armenian-Turkish relations in Ankara

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Turkey and Greece later this week.

“He’s going to stop first in Ankara, on December 2 to have meetings with Turkish leaders in Ankara, and then it’s on the Istanbul to address the global Entrepreneurship Summit on Saturday, December 3, which is to be hosted by Prime Minister,” Tony Blinken, the advisor for national security policy for Mr Biden, told a briefing.

“He’ll also lay a wreath at the Ataturk Mausoleum and then get into these meetings with the Prime Minister and the President. And we expect the discussions in Ankara to cover the broad agenda of partnership and cooperation between the United States and Turkey,” Blinken said.

Combating terrorism and the recent Arab development will also be in focus.

“I expect we’ll talk about the progress we’ve seen and hope to see in Cyprus negotiations before the Secretary General of the UN, Ban, brings the two leaders of Cyprus back together in January, and our hopes for a settlement as soon as possible; internal reforms in Turkey, including our hope for the reopening of the Halki seminary in Istanbul. Afghanistan will almost certainly be on the agenda, and the prospects for progress in normalizing relations between Turkey and Armenia,” Blinken added.

After Turkey, the Vice President goes to Athens for meetings with Greek officials and party leaders. That’s on Monday, December 5, and then he comes back home to the United States from Greece.