WASHINGTON (AFP)—Turkey’s foreign minister began talks Monday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying they would discuss thousands of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables, many of which originated in Ankara.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he would discuss “various agenda items” in his long-scheduled talks with Clinton at the State Department, “including the leaked documents” posted online by whistleblower website Wikileaks and a select group of media outlets.
Key regional U.S. ally Turkey is in the spotlight in the wake of the latest Wikileaks documents dump, in which the group posted several sensitive cables from the U.S. embassy in Ankara.
One cable dated November 2009 said Washington was “wondering if it could any longer count on Turkey to help contain Iran’s profound challenge to regional peace.”
Davutoglu, with Clinton at his side, said Turkey maintained a “strategic partnership” with Washington—comments echoed by the top U.S. diplomat before the pair entered private talks.