Joe Biden meets with Erdoğan ahead of meeting the global press on his last day in Rome

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Biden’s meeting Sunday morning with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which was passed on to journalists on Saturday night by a senior administration official, was not previously on Biden’s public timetable. The sit-down came about a week after Erdoğan ordered 10 ambassadors – including those from the United States, France and Germany – to be declared “persona non grata” after issuing a joint statement calling for the release of a jailed Turkish businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala.

Standing next to Erdoğan, Biden said he planned to have a “good conversation” with the Turkish president. Biden did not respond to questions from journalists about whether he planned to raise human rights issues or whether he thought Turkey was too close to Russia.

Prior to the meeting, an administration official told reporters in Rome: “The President will certainly indicate that we need to find a way to avoid crises like the one ahead, and hasty actions will not benefit the US-Turkey partnership and alliance. ” The official added two leaders are expected to discuss Libya and their defense.

Biden and Erdoğan last met one-on-one in June at NATO headquarters in Brussels, a meeting Biden called “positive and productive.” It was a closely monitored meeting after Biden in April became the first US president in decades to recognize the Ottoman Empire’s massacre as a genocide – a move that risked a potential break with Turkey but signaled a commitment to global human rights.

Sunday’s events

According to the White House, the President will “host an event on global supply chain resilience through the pandemic and recovery on the brink of the G20, to coordinate with leaders on both short- and long-term supply chain challenges and improve international coordination on all aspects of the supply chain.”

He will also attend two G20 sessions on climate and other sustainable development, according to the administration official.

Earlier this month, the IMF downgraded its 2021 US growth forecast by one percentage point – mostly for any G7 economy – due to supply chain disruptions and weakening spending. And as supply chain disruptions raised consumer prices and slowed economic recovery, Moody’s Analytics warned that disruptions “will get worse before they get better.”

Moody’s pointed to differences in how countries fight Covid-19, with China aiming for zero cases, while the United States is “more willing to live with Covid-19 as an endemic disease.” The company also mentioned the lack of a “coordinated global effort to ensure the smooth operation” of the worldwide logistics and transport network.

The administration official said Biden “will also have a few announcements related to our own national stockpile of critical minerals and metals, our own resources, which we will devote to trade facilitation to reduce blockages in key ports around the world.”

“He will also have a few other steps to announce tomorrow,” the official added.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday that the United States expects some “solid results” from Sunday’s supply chain meeting, which will include “a group of like-minded states from across continents to talk about how we can better coordinate both short-term supply chain disruptions and challenges and long-term supply chain resilience. “

Biden coordinated with French President Emmanuel Macron on the matter during their bilateral meeting on Friday, according to a White House official.

Furthermore, Sullivan said the president is expected to make announcements about “the capacity to have modern and efficient and skilled and flexible stocks.” The group “works towards agreement with the other participants on a set of principles and parameters around how we jointly manage and create resilient supply chains in the future.”

The president will also hold a solo press conference on Sunday afternoon ahead of Monday’s UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. This will be Biden’s first solo press conference since the one he held in mid-June in Geneva, Switzerland, following a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Biden’s engagement with journalists has been somewhat limited throughout this first part of his journey through Europe.

While the American press was allowed to ask questions in the room with Biden and Macron before their bilateral meeting in Rome, they were completely shut out of the president’s meeting with Pope Francis. Footage of the meeting from inside the papal walls was distributed by Vatican television.

CNN’s Matt Egan, Kate Sullivan and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

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