US Strongly Expects Turkey's NATO Membership To Last

The State Department said Thursday the US had every expectation for Turkey's membership to NATO to continue and remain important to the alliance's operations around the world, Anadolu News Agency reported.

    "Turkey remains a NATO ally and an important partner in the fight against ISIS group," State Department spokesman John Kirby said during a press briefing.

    "We expect both those relationships, with multilateral relationships to continue." The spokesman added that Washington still valued Turkey's membership and contribution to NATO, as well as to the counter-ISIS group coalition.

    "We want to see Turkey's contributions in the international community on many levels, not just the security sector, but on many levels continue and so we're going to work to that end," he said.

    On Turkey's plan to build military-technical cooperation with Moscow, Kirby said    "If Turkey and Russia are going to work out a new or different bilateral relationship based on security and defense issues, that's for them to decide."

Source: QNA