Erdogan Says Work With Biden Has Seen a 'Not Very Good Start'

ANKARA (Sputnik) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that work with his US counterpart, Joe Biden after the latter's inauguration had seen "not a very good start."

"I want us [Turkey and the United States], as two NATO countries, to be friends, not adversaries. But the current situation is not very good. Based on my almost 19 years of work as Prime Minister and President, I can say that, unfortunately, now it's not the best moment in relations with the US. I worked well with [George] Bush Jr., [Barack] Obama, [Donald] Trump, but I can't say that we started well with [Joe] Biden", Erdogan told Turkish journalists during his visit to the United States, as quoted by the Hurriyet newspaper.

He accused the US of providing weapons to "terrorists" in Syria and slammed Washington for leaving a large amount of weapons in Afghanistan, noting that the US "will have to pay a price" for that. Erdogan also noted that Ankara won't back down on the S-400 deal with Russia, which is another bone of contention in US-Turkey ties.