President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Thursday and immediately gave start to his busy schedule at the summit.
His first stop was on Friday when he attended a special session titled "Just and Sustainable Future." Following the summit, he took a "family picture" with the other world leaders at Colon Theater. Afterwards, the leaders came together at a dinner to talk about the future of working life and the strengthening of women's employment.
Erdoğan was also expected to have a semi-formal meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump during the summit, in addition to other bilateral meetings.
Ahead of his visit to Argentina, the president said he would discuss with Trump the Manbij issue, a matter which continues to be an obstacle in the reconciliation of strained relations between the two NATO allies despite a deal made for cooperation.
"We will have a meeting over the issue with Mr. Trump in Argentina. We said we will discuss the issue in detail there, as we have not had a chance to touch on it in detail over the phone," Erdoğan said.
The president said previously that although a deal was made U.S. over the withdrawal of the People's Protection Units (YPG), the Syrian branch of the PKK terrorist organization, the process has been "sluggish" and it has already fallen behind schedule.
Erdoğan was referring to the Manbij deal, made in June between Ankara and Washington, which is supposed to ultimately lead to the withdrawal of the YPG from Manbij, northern Syria, and the province's administration allocated to local people based on demographics reflecting the population prior to the YPG taking over.
The deal was based on a 90-day schedule, yet, so far only joint patrols have been conducted with U.S. and Turkish troops, a step scheduled to take place before the actual withdrawal of the YPG from the province.
On Saturday, the president is expected to attend another working meeting on infrastructure, energy and the future of sustainable food as one of the main speakers. He is also expected to hold a press conference following the meeting.
