Defense Secretary Ash Carter will meet with his Turkish counterpart this week in the midst of a four-day trip to the U.K. and Norway, the Pentagon announced.
Carter’s meeting with Turkey’s Minister of National Defense Fikri Isik comes during a sensitive time, as the U.S. relies on the NATO ally’s air base in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, yet has also partnered with the Kurdish YPG group, which Ankara considers a terrorist organization.
The meet-up also follows Vice President Joe Biden’s trip to Turkey, during which he told the YPG to stay east of the Euphrates River and out of the way of Turkish forces after they crossed the southern border into Syria to retake the city of Jarabulus from the Islamic State. Biden said the group risked losing U.S. support of it moved west. President Obama also met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in China.
Carter will meet with Isik in the U.K., where the U.S. defense chief is also expected to meet with British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon and Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Carter will also take part in a U.N. Peacekeeping Defense Ministerial, which will seek updates on pledges made during President Obama’s Leaders’ Summit held last year. Carter will also announce new contributions to U.N. peacekeeping missions, will give a major speech at Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and will hold a joint press conference with Fallon.
Carter will then travel to Norway on Thursday, where he will meet with Defense Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide in Bodø and then hold a joint press conference with Søreide in Oslo before returning on Friday. Norway is one of the nation’s contributing to the coalition against the Islamic State.
