Ambassador's remarks & public events

Remarks by Ambassador Ross Wilson Following His Meeting With Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul At The Foreign Ministry

Ankara, December 15, 2005

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Good afternoon.  I just finished an excellent meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Gul.  This was my first meeting here, of course, since presenting my credentials to President Sezer on Thursday a week ago.  We covered a very wide variety of topics.  I explained to him a little bit of what I saw as the thinking in Washington about Turkey and about US-Turkish relations.  I described to him what will be some of my priorities as I get started here in my mission as American ambassador.  It was a good and constructive conversation, the first of many that I will have with Mr. Gul and many of his colleagues.  I will be happy to try to answer a couple of questions. 

QUESTION:  Did you bring any messages from Secretary Rice?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I didn’t bring a specific message from Secretary Rice, in part because Foreign Minister Gul has seen her since I saw her.  I recounted for him some of what the Secretary had to say at my swearing-in ceremony on December 2 about the importance of Turkey, and about the importance that the United States attaches to our strategic partnership with this country.  He had already heard about that, as it may have been reported in the press here. 

QUESTION:  Ambassador, you said that you shared some of your priorities with Abdullah Gul.  Can you also share them with us?  What are the priorities?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Sure.  And I think there will be an opportunity coming up in a couple of days to talk about this a little bit more.  Generally speaking, I want to build on some of the work that has gone on here recently to improve the tone of US-Turkish relations, and to try to delve into some specific topics so that we can produce some good results for the people of the United States and for the people of Turkey on issues of common interest.  In particular, I want the United States to work as effectively as possible on Iraq, on Syria, on Iran, on Cyprus, on the Caucasus and Central Asia, on all of the very important regional issues that surround Turkey and that are of great concern to the United States.  I think an additional priority is to work to support the efforts that are ongoing here toward a further opening of Turkish society, further modernization, liberalization, and democratization here.  All those are good and constructive things that we support, and I want for my country to be in a position to support continued movement in those directions. 

QUESTION:  One last question.  In the Turkish press, there are many speculations about the FBI and CIA leaders visiting.

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I referred a moment ago to efforts to delve into some specific subjects where our two countries can work together to produce tangible benefits for the people of our two countries.  So I put the visits of FBI Director Mueller and CIA Director Goss very much in that framework.  They came following up the discussions that Secretary Rice had, that Prime Minister Erdogan had in Washington, that National Security Advisor Hadley had when he was here in September.  They are now working on some of the specifics in their areas of responsibility – in intelligence cooperation, in fighting international terrorism, and in other law enforcement matters.  Broadly speaking, that was what we were doing in those visits.  The talks were very warm, as is natural and appropriate among close allies and partners -- in particular, partners in the war on global terrorism.  They were very constructive talks, as is appropriate given the people who came here and the nature of the issues they have on the table.  Thank you very much.