Biden 'has space' on schedule to meet Turkish president but nothing final

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Joe Biden has availability to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his upcoming travel to Europe, but nothing has been finalized, the White House said Tuesday.

"We have space in the schedule, which we are working to finalize for additional bilateral meetings," spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. "As you know, he met with his Turkish counterpart in June on his first foreign trip, but I don’t have anything to predict quite yet, and hopefully with each day that follows we’ll have more.”

Biden is slated to depart for Italy on Thursday and meet Pope Francis in Vatican City on Friday before attending this weekend’s G20 leaders’ summit in Rome. Next week, the president will fly to Glasgow, Scotland to participate in the Nov. 1 - 2 World Leader Summit at the start of the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26).

Erdogan will attend both gatherings, allowing for a potential meeting should their schedules align.

Additional details about the US president's schedule are expected during an informal news conference aboard Air Force One en route to Italy.