The White House spokeswoman expressed confidence that Ankara and Washington will, as before, constructively interact on issues of mutual interest.

The United States intends to continue to express its opinion on the human rights situation in Turkey while simultaneously working to preserve allied relations between Washington and Ankara. This was stated on Tuesday at a regular briefing for journalists by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, commenting on the diplomatic scandal between the United States and Turkey.

“Of course, we continue to speak out about the detention of activists, journalists, [other] persons all over the world, including in Turkey. And we also raise issues privately and publicly in cases where we are concerned, as happened in this case,” the White House representative stressed, referring to the situation with human rights activist Osman Kavala.

At the same time, Psaki expressed confidence that Ankara and Washington will, as before, constructively cooperate on some issues of mutual interest, despite the current tensions. “Turkey remains a NATO ally, a country with which we will continue to work on the spectrum of common interests in the future,” the White House spokeswoman said.

She also argued that the statement of intention to respect the laws of Turkey, which was made on Monday by the ambassadors of 10 countries, including the United States and Canada, in Ankara, is not a rollback from previous positions in the human rights field. “His (this statement) should in no way be viewed in this light,” Psaki is convinced.

The spokeswoman found it difficult to clarify whether a bilateral meeting between the Presidents of the United States and Turkey, Joe Biden and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is possible within the framework of the upcoming G20 summit in Rome. At the same time, she did not rule out such a possibility. “As I noted, we have space in [Biden’s] work schedule, which we are finalizing, for additional bilateral meetings. As you know, he met with his Turkish counterpart in June [in Europe] when he made his first foreign tour. But I can’t predict anything yet. Hopefully, with each subsequent day, we will have more [clarity on this issue],” Psaki said.