Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin revealed that the foreign ministry asked its American counterpart to form a joint mechanism to mend bilateral ties.

“Our Foreign Ministry has sent a paper to its American counterpart. It is about the structure and the process about this mechanism and which issues can be addressed. Our work about it continues,” Hurriyet cited Kalin as saying at a meeting in Chicago on Thursday.

The idea of establishing a joint mechanism was first put forward at a meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in late October in Rome, Kalin recalled.

Kalin emphasized that talks with Washington over a positive agenda are continuing since “Turkey wants to run the bilateral ties with the U.S. in a substantial, equal, just and transparent way and on the basis of mutual interest and respect”.

The U.S. support to the YPG in northern Syria, the sanctions imposed on Turkey for the deployment of the Russian S-400 air defense systems and Washington’s refusal to extradite Fethullah Gulen are the fundamental issues that need to be resolved, Kalin told reporters.

“Our expectation [from the U.S.] of course, is to implement a policy review process that takes into account Turkey’s national interests,” he said.

In the meantime, Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar said on Saturday that a Turkish delegation would pay a visit to Washington at the beginning of the new year to discuss the F-35 issue.

The United States suspended Turkey from the F-35 program in 2019, following Ankara’s acquisition of S-400s and later imposed sanctions on the country’s defense industry over that contentious procurement.

Washington maintains that the S-400s are incompatible with NATO systems and pose a security threat.

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