During their meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Lithuania, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan congratulated President Joe Biden on his 2024 re-election campaign and wished him

the best of luck. This exchange followed Erdogan's recent diplomatic move to facilitate Sweden's entry into NATO, which was seen as a victory for the Biden administration and a shift in the sometimes strained relations between the two NATO allies.

Erdogan's support for Sweden's bid to join NATO has pleased the United States and caused concern for Russia. The interaction between Erdogan and Biden, witnessed by reporters, displayed a more amicable tone between the two leaders. In response to Erdogan's well wishes, President Biden expressed gratitude and jokingly mentioned looking forward to meeting with Erdogan in the next five years.

As President Biden seeks a second term in the upcoming November 2024 presidential election, he aims to emphasize the importance of international alliances as a central aspect of his campaign platform. The potential Republican candidate and former President, Donald Trump, previously held a mixed stance on Turkish foreign policy and occasionally expressed admiration for Erdogan and other authoritarian leaders.

Erdogan himself recently won a narrow re-election to a five-year term in May, extending his two-decade-long hold on power. Photo by World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland, Wikimedia commons.