The Biden administration wants to cooperate with Turkey on common priorities, the U.S. State Department said on Monday after a diplomatic row de-escalated earlier in the day.
“The Biden administration seeks cooperation with Turkey on common priorities and, as with any NATO ally, we will continue to engage in dialogue to address any disagreements,” it said.
"We believe the best way forward is through cooperation on issues of mutual interest and we know that we have many issues of mutual interest with Turkey."
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatened to expel the ambassadors of the United States and nine other Western nations after they issued a joint statement for a "just and speedy" resolution in the case of Osman Kavala.
The president had announced on Saturday that he ordered the envoys be declared persona non grata after the embassies of the United States, Canada, France, Finland, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden called for Kavala's release in a joint statement last week.
Turkey's Foreign Ministry summoned Tuesday the ambassadors of the countries involved, accusing them of meddling in the Turkish judiciary.
Kavala, a Turkish businessperson, has been imprisoned for four years now over his alleged role in the 2013 Gezi Park protests and subsequent riots.
In the aftermath of the statement, the 10 embassies voiced their commitment to abiding by Article 41 of the Vienna Convention, which obliges diplomats to respect the laws and regulations of the countries they are posted.
“We believe that these ambassadors, who have fulfilled their commitment to Article 41 of the Vienna Convention, will now be more careful in their statements,” Erdoğan said in televised remarks following a three-hour Cabinet meeting in Ankara.
