WASHINGTON
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay a two-day formal visit to Washington, beginning on Tuesday.
"We are looking forward to Erdogan's official visit", a White House official told AA on Tuesday.
Erdogan, to be accompanied by his spouse Emine Erdogan, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, National Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz, European Union Minister Egemen Bagis, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan, and Energy & Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz, is expected to arrive in Washington's Andrews Airport on Tuesday evening.
Erdogan family will stay at Blair House across the White House, where most special foreign visitors are hosted.
Turkish premier's first stop will be the construction site of Turkish-American Society Center in Maryland state.
-Erdogan and Obama to meet on May 16-
Erdogan will meet US President Barack Obama on May 16 at Oval Office which will be followed by a joint press conference. The conference is expected to be at Rose Garden where Obama holds press conferences with his most important guests, or at East Room depending on the weather condition.
At lunch, Erdogan is expected to meet Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry, and the Speaker of House of Representatives John Boehner.
Later on Thursday, Erdogan will attend a round-table discussion at U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The first day of Erdogan's visit will end with a dinner which will be hosted in his honor. Erdogan will meet Obama for additional two hours during the dinner.
-Syria to be the main agenda-
Turkish-US relations, living its golden age particularly after the post-Arab uprisings, turned out to be more critical than ever due to the Syria question. While cooperating with regional powers became unavoidable for the US administration under Obama, who prefers a multilateral approach unlike former President George W. Bush, Turkey constitutes a unique partner for the US with its effective policy towards not only the Middle East, but also the rest of the world. Therefore Obama administration aims to emphasize the significance attributed to Turkey during Erdogan's visit.
The two leaders' agenda is set to include issues ranging from Syria to Iraq, Iran to Middle East peace process, struggle with global terrorism to various cooperation possibilities around the world. Nevertheless, the main agenda is likely to be Syria. In addition, the US media comments that the blasts in Turkish town Reyhanli might be high on the agenda as well.
-Think-tank meetings-
Erdogan will make a speech titled "AK Party government and Turkey's transformation" at Brookings Institute, and "Global order and justice at the 21st century" at SETA, Turkish think tank organization, in Washington DC on May 17.
On May 18, Erdogan will visit several institutions at Silicon Valley in San Francisco, and meet the representatives of Turkish-Islamic societies afterwards.
Erdogan is scheduled to depart for Turkey on May 20.
During the two-day formal visit, Emine Erdogan will also have several meetings in Washington. She will deliver a speech titled "The role of businesswomen at peace-building and development" at Georgetown University on May 16.
Reporting by Bariskan Unal/Mehmet Toroglu/Hasan Oymez
Erdogan to raise FTA issue with Obama
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership envisaged to be signed between the US and the EU is expected to be discussed during the US visit of Erdogan.
The negotiations of the agreement which are to begin in June will result in the biggest free trade zone in the world.
Within scope of the Customs Union Agreement, it is feared that Turkey would face the risk of a 2.5 percent shrinkage in growth and not being able to compete with the cheap EU products unless Turkey and the US sign another agreement for trade. According to the Customs Union Agreement, for a product produced in Turkey and in free circulation between Turkey and the EU to enter a third country free of tax, Turkey needs to sign a separate agreement with this country.
Nonetheless, once products of third countries that have a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU but not with Turkey are imported to the EU, they can enter Turkey free of tax. This situation emerges as an important factor discouraging such countries to sign a free trade agreement with Turkey when they can do so via the EU. Moreover, Turkey is not consulted in the process of determining countries to sign free trade agreement with.
-US support to Turkey-
While Turkey expressed its "concerns", other parties stated there shouldn't be any worry in regards to the matter.
US Secretary of State John Kerry in March stated that economic cooperation couldn't take place without Turkey and added, "Turkey needs to have a strong position in this structure."
Turkish Minister of Economy Zafer Caglayan had previously stated that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership to be signed between the US and the EU would result in unfair competition for Turkey.
