Biden Arrives in Turkey Seeking Support for Anti-IS Campaign
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Friday arrived in Turkey for a three day visit aimed at persuading Turkish leaders to play a bigger role in the coalition against Islamic State (IS) militants.
Biden is expected to seek to soothe tensions that have emerged between the two NATO members, traditionally strong allies, over Turkey's reluctance to play a major role in the fight against the jihadists who have captured swathes of Iraq and Syria.
The U.S. number two will Friday evening meet Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Istanbul for dinner talks. On Saturday he will address a conference before heading into a key meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He is due to leave Istanbul on Sunday.
So far, Turkey's sole contribution to the coalition has been allowing a contingent of Iraqi peshmerga Kurdish fighters to transit Turkish soil to fight IS militants for the Syrian border town of Kobane.
Turkey has set several conditions for playing a greater role in the coalition.
It wants a clear coordinated strategy to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, a major training and equipping program for the anti-regime Free Syrian Army and a security zone, backed by a no-fly area, to be set up in northern Syria along the Turkish border.
However U.S. officials indicated in the run-up to the trip that while they are prepared to discuss a security zone it was not an idea that was currently on the table.
Biden and Erdogan were involved in a highly-publicized spat last month after the U.S. vice president suggested Ankara had changed its Syria policy after realizing it had encouraged the growth of IS.
Erdogan promptly declared that his relationship with Biden would be "history" for him had he said such a thing and the two sides even argued over whether there had been an apology.
Source: Agence France Presse
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