Turkish foreign minister to meet US Secretary of State in Washington | Latest English News | WION

the turkish foreign minister is set to meet u.s secretary of state anthony blinken today it's a meeting crucial for both sides as it's the first step towards repairing ties between the two nato allies but casting a shadow over the visit is turkey's threat to veto sweden and finland's nato bids turkish president reship tayyip erdogan has refused to endorse the move saying the nordic states are harboring terrorists now erdogan even urged other nato allies to respect turkey's concerns scandinavian countries reply are guest houses for terrorist organizations members of pkk dhpkc are hiding in sweden and the netherlands they're even members of the parliament in some countries at this point it is not possible for us to take a positive view the terrorists he's referring to are kurdish groups erdogan's talking about the kurdistan workers party or the pkk turkey's labelled them as a terror group and erdogan says that sweden is harboring them now sweden does have a sizable kurdish population many of them have made it all the way to parliament but there's no pieces of evidence of their links to the pkk this makes this visit even more crucial anthony blinken will address turkey's concerns and try to prevent the country from moving further away from the west nato needs the approval of turkey to admit new members so here erdogan has a trump card in return he could ask from washington for weapons or for sanctions to be lifted currently one of turkish foreign minister melvit cableski's objections and objectives is to persuade washington to allow the sale of f-16 fighter jets to turkey to get more on this our correspondent susan taurani is joining us live from new york city well susan looked lots for the two men to discuss during this meeting and it's taking a day place a day before president biden welcomes both the swedish and finnish leaders to the white house so how important is the issue of nato membership for the united states very important indeed as you mentioned nick a lot of issues on the table anthony blinken on sunday said that he's confident that this conversation with the turkish foreign minister will go and move in the right direction another talking point that's been sort of hovering over these talks is the fact that president erdogan has elections coming up in turkey and perhaps that's also a point that he's taking into consideration in bringing up the issue of finland and sweden not and being reluctant in joining nato because he wants to really present that stance among the turkish public that he's very serious about the issue of the organizations and the kurdish issue for his population so that's one aspect of it he said that this is not a hostile issue we just want these two countries to stay in the quote-unquote nato waiting group however what's happening with russia's invasion of ukraine uh the nato secretary general has made very clear that the joining of finland and sweden will be very a positive effect for nato and they hope to move this forward as swiftly as possible many analysts believe that ultimately turkey will come around however as you mentioned it hopes to perhaps gain something out of uh this resistance and these talks and if it's going to be some sort of fighter jet or military equipment from the united states which it had been chastised before because it made some dealings with russia uh previously and now perhaps it could you know first of all uh get that sort of those condemnations off the table and get something out of it from the united states in terms of military equipment and fighter jets and then reach an agreement that that would be the best case scenario and also on the home front again you know erdogan did pose this opposition this firm stance with the elections coming up then that would be a win-win scenario but we'll see what happens it is a very important issue indeed and for it to be resolved and which way it moves it's important for the united states it's also important for turkey as well well susan as influence you mentioned some very strong bargaining chips there that erdogan has that he could potentially play what do you expect do you think we're going to see any breakthroughs or any major agreements coming out of this meeting between the u.s and turkey we'll probably see some sort of statement coming out from both sides whether or not it'll be a breakthrough or not it's very hard to tell i think it'll set the groundwork and the framework of what's what's to come but ultimately as i mentioned i think it's it's it's important for the united states to at least save face after this meeting especially as it comes on the sideline of two very important meetings uh here in new york at the united nations and it's a time when the united nations is hosting is a president of the security council it's very important for it to come out with some at least substantial positive note before anthony blinken leaves new york whether or not it will be a breakthrough statement that's that's probably a step too far but we'll wait we'll wait and see thank you susan that was susan turani joining us live from new york city moving on now to the united states midterm elections and it was a night of primaries across five major u.s states on tuesday seven more states are scheduled to hold their primaries this week the results indicate a historic midterm election this year let's have a look at some of the winners and some of the most important contests that took place last night well in pennsylvania let's start there there were crowded primaries on both sides in the senate race to replace a retiring republican senator patrick j twomey the republican gop side has drawn the most attention because of television personality mehmet oz who was endorsed by donald trump and on the other side the democratic party's john fetterman is projected to win while votes are still being counted onto the gubertorial race also in pennsylvania once again trump endorsed candidate senator doug mastriano he's projected to win there and josh shapiro from the democratic side has won the gubernatorial primary unopposed moving on to north carolina both parties have their sights set on the seat that was opened up by retiring senator richard burr this will be a key target in the battle for the senate in november republicans had over a dozen candidates and representative ted budd is a clear winner he too was endorsed by donald trump former state supreme court justice sherry beasley is the winner on the democratic side shifting our focus to idaho's senate race backed by trump's endorsement incumbent senator mike crappo will likely have his fifth term in office and david roth from the blue side is leading the race against ben pursley and in the gubernatorial race in idaho incumbent republican governor brad little is fighting for a second term against his own lieutenant governor janice mcgeechen little has been projected to win with around 93 per cent of the votes already counted and educator stephen height is running for the democratic nomination unopposed [Music] you

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