Turkish FM Çavuşoğlu likely to meet US counterpart soon

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Sunday said he is likely to meet his U.S. counterpart Mike Pompeo on May 11 or 16.

In remarks made to CNN Türk, Çavuşoğlu said: "It seems it will be on the 11th or 16th. We still have not received a response for the 11th, which was our proposal. The visit will most probably happen next week."

Speaking about possible U.S. sanctions on Turkey over purchase of S-400 air defense system, Çavuşoğlu said, "If the U.S. takes a step toward an embargo or visa [ban] on us, Turkey will definitely respond to that. But we would not wish it. Why should we come to that?"

He said, "Their approach of threatening talks or sanctions are not correct when we are sensitive on this [S-400 air defense system] issue. If [the US] takes such steps while we are trying to mend relations, they will certainly get a response from Turkey."

Last December, Turkey announced it had concluded an agreement with Russia for the purchase of two S-400 systems by late 2019.

On April 3, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said in Ankara that they had agreed to shorten the duration of the systems' delivery. The delivery is expected to start in late 2019-early 2020.

Çavuşoğlu also said Russia had proposed visa exemption on Russian official and service passports, while negotiations are ongoing for partial exemptions on Turkish passports, which are planned to be implemented at the end of this year.