
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will visit Turkey on Monday, where he will have a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Defense Minister Yasser Guler. During Rutte's meetings in Ankara, the Turkish side is expected to raise the presence of the Kurdish PYD faction and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia. Ankara equates the presence of Kurdish forces on its southern border with the PKK organization and terrorism.
The Turkish leadership is also expected to raise with the Secretary General the issue of Turkey's possible mediating role in the Ukraine-Russia war and other bilateral issues, especially in relation to the expected changes in transatlantic relations after Donald Trump took office in the US.
As part of his contacts in the Turkish capital, Mark Rutte will also meet with representatives of the Turkish defense industry and visit the facilities of the Turkish Aerospace Industry, which were recently targeted by a terrorist attack.
Before his visit to Turkey, Mark Rutte met on Friday in Florida with the president-elect of the USA, while the next stop of the secretary general will be Athens.