ANKARA (Reuters) -President Tayyip Erdogan said he was hopeful that his meeting last month with U.S. President Donald Trump would help lift sanctions blocking Turkey’s purchase of F-35 jets, and also help resolve a legal case against state lender Halkbank.
The U.S. CAATSA sanctions, applied in 2020 over Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 air defences, and the U.S. charges that Halkbank helped Iran skirt separate sanctions emerged as key issues in the White House talks two weeks ago.
The sides announced no agreements on those issues after the meeting between Trump and Erdogan.
“I hope the F-35 issue will be resolved and CAATSA sanctions will be lifted,” Erdogan told reporters on a flight back from Azerbaijan, when asked about the meeting and a subsequent phone call with Trump.
“We must achieve this. Our visit has ushered in a new era in Turkish-U.S. relations and further strengthened the dialogue and friendship between us,” he said, according to a transcript of his remarks shared by his office on Wednesday.
On Halkbank, Erdogan said that Trump told him both at the White House and in their phone call that “the Halkbank problem is finished for us,” according to the readout.
On Tuesday Reuters reported, citing two sources, that Turkish officials proposed settling the case against Halkbank for some $100 million during the White House meeting. Shares in Halkbank subsequently rose 7.9% in Istanbul.
“We also know that there are some processes (related to Halkbank) that need to be completed. Our hope is that these processes will conclude positively as soon as possible,” Erdogan was quoted as saying on the flight.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Daren Butler and Jonathan Spicer)
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