Turkish, American business circles to meet on Sunday

Turkish and American business circles will gather in Washington starting on Sunday.

The 37th Annual Conference on U.S.-Turkey Relations will have the theme "Back to Business: Maintaining Partnership in Difficult Times."

The three-day event, organized by the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey (DEİK), the Turkey-U.S. Business Council (TAİK) and the American-Turkish Council (ATC), will discuss ways to reach a $75 billion bilateral trade target. An increase of Turkey-U.S. trade volume, currently close to $21 billion, to $75 billion has been one of the most-discussed topics in recent phone calls between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Donald Trump, who agreed to further enhance economic relations.

"For the past two years, the focus was on politics; now's the time to get back to business," Mehmet Ali Yalcindağ, TAİK's chair, said in a statement.

He underlined that this year's event aims to create a business and commerce platform rather than focus on the defense industry.

Expected to attend the meeting are Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan, National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Energy and Natural Resources Deputy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar.

On the U.S. side will be Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, National Security Adviser John Bolton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph F. Dunford and Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. Senior Adviser to President Trump Jared Kushner is also confirmed to be attending. Treasury and Finance Minister Albayrak is also scheduled to attend the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank meetings on April 12-14 in Washington, D.C. During the meetings, Minister Albayrak will explain the new road map for the Turkish economy and come together with investors and finance circles.