Trump lavishes praise on Erdogan in White House meeting and suggests Turkey stop buying Russian oil and gas

Donald Trump left the door open to a range of possible deals with Turkey as he met the country’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on September 25, but did not sign on any dotted lines.

Perhaps the most uncomfortable moment for Erdogan came as Trump talked about how Erdogan had kept Nato member Turkey neutral in the Ukraine War and then suggested Erdogan should stop buying Russian oil and gas.

Said Trump in a briefing for reporters before the two presidents went behind closed doors for talks: “I think he [Erdogan] could have a big influence [on resolving the Ukraine War] if he wants to. Right now, he’s very neutral. He likes being neutral. So do I like being neutral, but he’s somebody that if he got involved, the best thing he could do is not buy oil and gas from Russia.”

Having lost European markets to sanctions since it started the war in February 2022, Moscow has relied on countries including Turkey, India and China to provide it with additional buyers for its hydrocarbon exports. Trump has protested this week several times that remaining European buyers and other buyers of Russian oil and gas are funding the Kremlin war machine.

Stressing the point, Trump, sitting alongside Erdogan in the Oval Office, said: “I’d like to have him stop buying any oil from Russia while Russia continues this rampage against Ukraine.”

However, for Erdogan, a sudden move to ban Russian oil and gas would be impractical. Turkey has this week committed to importing tens of billions of dollars of American liquefied natural gas (LNG) over the next 20 years, but right now its reliance on Russian energy remains huge—Russia is in fact Turkey’s biggest energy supplier and last year was the source of 66% of its oil imports and 41% of its natural gas imports, official Turkish data shows.

As entirely expected, Trump did not address the claims of Erdogan critics that Turkey’s leader of 22 years is engaged in a campaign to dismantle what remains of his country’s democracy in order to ensure he stays in power, though he did make a vague reference to Erdogan knowing a lot about "rigged elections" in an aside about his own alleged woes at the hands of the US electoral system.

In fact, he took an entirely different tack, lavishing praise on Erdogan, who was visiting the White House for the first time in six years. Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden had an awkward relationship with Erdogan, given that he had referred to him as an “autocrat” during his campaigning for the presidency against Trump ahead of the 2020 US election, but Trump laid on the compliments thick, telling the gathered press: “ He’s a highly respected man. He’s respected very much in his country and all throughout Europe and throughout the world where they know him. It’s an honour to have him.”

Trump also remarked: “This is a guy who’s highly opinionated. Usually, I don’t like opinionated people. I always like this one but he’s a tough one.”

For his part, Erdogan said that he was “very pleased” to be returning to the White House and he was hopeful of taking Turkey-US relations to “a much different level”.

There was no confirmation of a massive potential deal flagged earlier this week, namely the purchase by Turkish Airlines of 300 Boeing aircraft (Erdogan is accused by opponents of securing the White House appointment by committing to the mega purchase) and observers will wonder whether that might be linked to Erdogan’s push to win Trump’s permission to buy from the US scores of the world’s most advanced fighter jet, the stealth F-35, an aircraft already in the Israeli fleet and soon to feature in squadrons of another of Turkey’s regional rivals, Greece.

During his first term as president, Trump signed an order kicking Turkey out of the F-35 programme and forbidding sales of the plane to Ankara. That was a response to Turkey going against Washington’s wishes by acquiring S-400 missile defence systems from the Kremlin. The S-400s remain at the disposal of the Turkish armed forces, but there has been mounting speculation that Erdogan will nevertheless find some way to get Trump to budge on the F-35 issue.

As things turned out, there was no announcement after the private talks of Trump and Erdogan that sanctions would be lifted to allow Turkey to procure F-35s, but Trump, according to Bloomberg, said he would discuss with Erdogan purchases of the US Patriot missile-defence system as an American alternative to the S-400s—analysts may wonder whether if the Boeing and Patriot deals go through, the F-35 deal will be done too.

Those opposed to any such prospect include the bipartisan Hellenic Caucus in the US Congress, which this week warned against permitting Turkey to buy F-35s, pointing to military co-operation it had engaged in with Russia and Ankara’s "disregard for international norms and democratic principles".

As regards the Gaza crisis, Erdogan told the media in the White House that, “I believe in the peace efforts Mr Trump is leading.”

This line will be met with scorn by the main opposition party in Turkey, CHP, which has made it clear that they believe Trump’s lack of action against Israel over its brutal military campaign against the Palestinians amounts to backing for what has turned into a genocide.