President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan cut short his trip to New York, where he attended a U.N. General Assembly session and returned to Türkiye early Wednesday, excluding a reception hosted by the U.S. president from his itinerary he was supposedly attending, according to Turkish media outlets.
Earlier, first lady Emine Erdoğan participated in a separate reception by U.S. first lady Jill Biden.
Turkish officials did not comment on the president’s decision not to attend the reception, Biden’s last such event before November’s U.S. elections.
Two leaders have often been at odds, but Ankara-Washington ties never fully deteriorated during Biden’s tenure. Although they rarely met in person, Biden and Erdoğan occasionally held phone calls while top diplomats of both countries have been in touch, especially amid the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict and cease-fire efforts. Erdoğan and Biden last saw each other during July’s NATO summit in Washington D.C. The Turkish president met several heads of state on the sidelines of the U.N. event but never met Biden during his stay in New York. Before he departed for the U.S. last weekend, Erdoğan told reporters that there was no planned bilateral meeting with Biden, but he hoped they may come together on various occasions.
