Turkey's Erdogan calls Macron's NATO comments "unacceptable"

President Trump on French Emmanuel Macron's comments in The Economist "having to do with commitment & @NATO, that was a big statement that was made a couple of days ago by France, so I think that bothered the President (Erdogan) very much...and a lot of other people feel that way too."

President Erdogan adds that Macron's comments on NATO were "unacceptable" via an interpreter.

Erdogan touts Kurds being in Turkey's parliament during his meeting with President Trump and Republican Senators, many of whom support sanctioning Turkey over its incursion into Syria targeting America's Kurdish partners.

Trump says he & Erdogan will discuss Turkey's acquisition of the Russian-made S-400 & its impact on its getting the F-35. Trump does not offer a condemnation of Turkey's incursion targeting America's Kurdish allies & does not bring up allegations of war crimes by Turkish proxies

Trump on reconciling Turkey's purchase of the Russian S-400 & the F-35 jet: "Well that's what we're here for. We're talking about it...we have a lot of alternatives, we'll work something out, I project that we will work something out...I think it will work out fine."

The US wants to bring Turkey “back into the NATO fold,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday as he warned again about Ankara drifting away from its NATO partners.

Washington is concerned that recent arms deals with Russia and its recent incursion into northern Syria mean Turkey is slipping away from the military bloc. Esper's comments came ahead of US President Donald Trump's meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Wednesday.

"We need Turkey back in the fold. They've been good allies for many years, all the way back to fighting alongside the United States in the Korean war, up to (its) presence with us in Afghanistan,” Esper told reporters.

The defense secretary said the US needs to continue to build ties, particularly at the military-to-military level, to ensure the two countries have “an enduring relationship that will get us through this tough period right now." RT