President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will meet U.S. President Donald Trump in New York on the sidelines of next week’s United Nations General Assembly, U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Tom Barrack announced. Details of the meeting, reported by Turkish media outlets, are not clear yet.
The two men last met on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara last July, as the defense alliance charted its future amid the threat of a U.S. withdrawal under Trump, the U.S.-Israel-Iran war and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The summit was also an opportunity to showcase the improving ties between the two countries under Trump, who often praises President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s political skills. Trump also signaled the lifting of sanctions against Türkiye.
Erdoğan met Trump at the White House in September 2025 during his first visit to Washington in six years and his first in-person meeting with Trump.
Relations between the two countries hit both lows and highs during Trump’s first term. They flourished during the president’s second term, as Trump built a good rapport with Erdoğan after returning to the White House in January 2025.
World leaders will gather in New York next week for the high-level general debate of the U.N. General Assembly’s 81st session, a gathering that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will open for the final time before his mandate ends.
The General Assembly’s high-level week runs from Sept. 22 to Sept. 28, following the session’s formal opening on Sept. 8. Bangladeshi diplomat Khalilur Rahman is presiding over the 81st session, held under the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations That Delivers for All.”
Leaders are also expected to address the Cyprus issue, the conflict and worsening humanitarian crisis in Sudan, Myanmar’s political and humanitarian crisis, and the security crisis in Haiti, alongside the wars in Gaza, Iran and Ukraine, rounding out an agenda dominated by conflicts with no clear resolution in sight.
