Minister of National Defence Yaşar Güler received four members of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee in Ankara. U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers and three congressmen, U.S. House of Representatives Ranking Members of the House Armed Services Committee Adam Smith, Salud Carbajal, Veronica Escobar along with U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Jeffry L. Flake attended the meeting. The delegation of four people came to Turkiye as part of the Central Asia tour. They first went to Saudi Arabia, then to Uzbekistan, and then came to Ankara.
Roger and his delegation met with Hulusi Akar, Chairman of the National Defence Commission of the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
Rogers expressed their primary focus on security-related partnerships and a keen interest in Akar's insights on resolving the Ukraine crisis. This topic of mutual concern holds the potential for significant diplomatic progress.
After the meeting, Akar answered journalists' questions, saying it is important to hold inter-parliamentary talks after a long time and stating that they conveyed their problems and opinions on general and military issues.
In answering a question about the F-16 procurement, Akar said that this issue was brought up in the meeting and that there was no problem regarding the F-16. "There is no problem here. The necessary agreements and contracts have been made. There are meetings between our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hakan Fidan, and U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. There are subsequent events. This now appears to be an agreed-upon project that is being followed up on normally. There is nothing wrong," he said.
