Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday will make a new push with Turkish leaders for more coordinated strategy for fighting the Islamic State and sealing Turkey's border, after months of following different plans that have led to complaints from both countries.
Biden's meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erodgan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu comes after months in which the two countries have pursued different plans for curbing the refugee flow to Turkey, and preventing Islamic State militants from using the Turkey-Syria border as a thoroughfare for Islamic State fighters, black market goods and war materials.
The differing agendas have led to complaints from Turkey that Russia is being given free reign in the region.
The two countries also have different views on how to prioritize the Islamic State and Syria. Turkey views the terrorist group as a threat, especially after one of its fighters blew himself up in a crowded public square in Istanbul earlier this month. But Ankara is far more concerned about pushing for the removal of Syrian President Bashar Assad from power, while Washington wants Turkey's military to focus on the war against the Islamic State, most immediately to close its porous border.
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