US wants deeper, stronger ties with Turkey: official

By Michael Hernandez</p> <p>WASHINGTON (AA) – The administration of President Donald Trump supports &quot;deepening and strengthening&quot; relations with Turkey, Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said Monday.</p> <p>Addressing a Turkish-American business gathering in Washington, Brouillette said it is imperative that existing strains on the bilateral relationship not develop further, because &quot;we are truly better when we are working together.&quot;</p> <p>&quot;Both nations have benefited tremendously from our strong friendship,&quot; he said. &quot;However, even good friends sometimes have disagreements and it is time to resolve past misunderstandings to leverage our mutual strengths and actions to support the NATO alliance and create peace and a greater shared prosperity.&quot;</p> <p>Brouillette pointed to energy cooperation between Washington and Ankara, calling it &quot;integral,&quot; stressing the Trump administration and U.S. businesses stand ready to bolster cooperation and energy diversity in Turkey.</p> <p>Turkey is already one of the top 10 importers of U.S. liquefied natural gas, he said, and is the largest importer within NATO.</p> <p>Alparsalan Bayraktar, Brouillette's Turkish counterpart, said Turkey is the fourth largest gas market in Europe and wants to see &quot;more competitive terms and conditions” with contracts.</p> <p>&quot;The market is profoundly sensitive to pricing dynamics, and the suppliers should realize and should adopt this,&quot; he said.</p> <p>Citing major gas contracts that are set to expire in 2021 totaling nearly 3% of Turkey's gas consumption, Bayraktar said there is &quot;huge potential here to cooperate in this field with U.S. suppliers.&quot; </p> <p>&quot;The trade volume between Turkey and U.S. reached around $19 billion and if we would like to increase this volume, energy and especially gas can play a very significant role,&quot; he said. &quot;We need to work together as two governments, to support and encourage our companies to cooperate and come up with some creative business models, and mutually beneficial business models.&quot;