Regional developments and the strategic partnership between the two countries were the topics discussed in a new telephone conversation on Friday afternoon between the presidents of the United States and Turkey, Donald Trump and Tayyip Erdogan. The White House announcement does not contain enough details.
He noted that "the two leaders expressed support for the ongoing efforts to increase cooperation between their countries, to promote common interests as allies in NATO and to work on issues affecting their bilateral relations."
It should be noted that Deputy Foreign Minister John Sullivan met with Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Umit Yalcin late Friday afternoon at the State Department. There was no State Department reaction to the content of the meeting, which was closed to the press.
Prior to the announcement of Tillerson's resignation, he was scheduled to meet in Washington with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoλουlu. Diplomatic sources say the Sullivan-Yalcin meeting is a prelude to a visit to the United States by Mr Tsavousoglu for talks with Mark Pompeo, who must first go through the process of ratifying his appointment to the Senate.
However, diplomatic sources expected the Sullivan-Yalcin meeting to be an assessment of the March 8th and 9th meeting of a multi-member working group of US and Turkish officials, which discussed problems in relations between the two countries.