'Elbow Contact' with Macron as part of NATO Summit

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Brussels with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to "clarify" many issues of Franco-Turkish affairs in recent times.

#dokuz8/Dr. Selmin Seda Coşkun

The meeting, which is said to have been fruitful according to the Elysee Palace, took place at NATO headquarters in Brussels just before the official start of the Alliance summit. During the meeting, which lasted about 50 minutes, it was noted by Elysee that France and Turkey, which have maintained tense relations for months, wanted to discuss all issues in depth on prominent diplomatic and political issues. It was stated that they expressed the "will to progress together on Syria and Libya", that are two of the issues of separation between them. Emmanuel Macron also recalled the desire to make a strategic statement among the Allies on the values, principles and rules within NATO. Immediately after the meeting, the French President shared the message on his Twitter account, “I had a long face-to-face meeting with President Erdoğan before the NATO summit in order to move forward with openness, respect and enthusiasm.”

“MORE DIALOGUE AND EXCHANGE OF IDEAS”

According to French sources, Macron rather dwells on what should be. He underlined that the questions such as clarifying the principles and rules within NATO, informing the interlocutors and exchanging views before any steps that affect the interests and security of the Allies should be brought to the fore. Expressing the need to be in dialogue with the European Union on strategic issues, Macron said that there should be "more dialogue and exchange of ideas" between the allies. Speaking about the cartoon issue, which is another element of the tension between Turkey and France, Macron said that France respects Islam and Muslims, that French secularism is an important opportunity to respect all religions, and that the principle of secularism is one of the important values of the republic. also reminded that these values should be respected and not used for other purposes, as given by the French sources.