UPDATES WITH MEETING ENDING, ADDS MORE REMARKS FROM TURKISH PRESIDENT, CHANGES HEADLINE
By Beyza Binnur Donmez
MADRID (AA) – Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his US counterpart Joe Biden met on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid on Wednesday.
The meeting lasted nearly one hour.
In a brief interaction before the closed-door meeting, Erdogan said steps being taken to strengthen NATO will have a "special contribution" in the context of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
The Russia-Ukraine war has had negative effects on grain and oil, the Turkish president said, adding: "We are trying to resolve the process with a balanced policy in this regard. We hope that we will get results with this balanced policy."
He expressed hope of opening corridors soon to the countries that are currently lacking grain.
Biden thanked Erdogan for his efforts to get millions of tons of grain out of Ukraine and supporting Sweden and Finland's NATO membership.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin, and intelligence service head Hakan Fidan also attended the meeting.