US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu said after talks in Ankara that the two sides would set up working groups to solve key issues that have bedevilled relations.
They gave few details on how this could be achieved, but indicated that solving a dispute over the control of the flashpoint town of Manbij was a priority.
“We are not going to act alone any longer, not US doing one thing, Turkey doing another,” Tillerson said after the talks.
“We will work together... we have good mechanisms on how we can achieve this,” he added.
Cavusoglu said Turkey and the US agreed on the need to normalise relations.
He said ties were at a "critical phase" and vowed to create "mechanisms" to discuss issues that were causing problems.
A prime task of Tillerson was to allay Turkish anger over US policy in Syria, a dispute which has ignited the biggest crisis in bilateral ties since the 2003 Iraq war.
Washington has warned that Turkey’s operation against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) Kurdish militia in the Afrin region of Syria risked distracting from the fight against jihadists.
Tillerson called on Ankara to “show restraint in its operation" while insisting that Turkey and the United States "share the same objectives in Syria".
[france24.com/AFP]
16/2/18
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