WASHINGTON _ U.S. national security adviser John Bolton met Monday with Turkey's Ambassador to the U.S., Serdar Kilic, the White House announced, as tensions between the two NATO allies remained high.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the meeting occurred at the Kilic's request amid a confrontation between U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the detention of a Christian evangelical minister whom the Turkish government has accused of espionage and terrorism related to a 2016 failed coup attempt.
Trump hit Turkey with more sanctions last week as Turkey's lira was already weakening into record territory. The collapse in Turkish financial markets rippled across emerging markets, sending both stocks and currencies to their lowest levels in a year.
Bolton and Kilic "discussed Turkey's continued detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson and the state of the U.S.-Turkey relationship," Sanders said in a statement emailed to reporters.
Trump announced Friday morning that he was doubling tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Turkey. That decision followed sanctions Trump imposed earlier this month on the country's justice and interior ministers.
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