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Top-level Turkish delegation to visit Washington for talks

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ANKARA: Turkey’s newly appointed deputy foreign minister, Sedat Onal, will head a delegation that will go to the United States to discuss tensions between the Nato allies, a source in the Turkish foreign ministry said on Tuesday.


Relations between the two countries have steadily worsened, strained by differences on Syria policy and over the trial of US pastor Andrew Brunson in Turkey.


A widening trade spat sent the lira currency to a record low on Monday.


Broadcaster CNN Turk had earlier reported that Turkey and the United States had reached pre-arrangements on certain issues and the delegation would go to Washington in two days to discuss the row.


“Our deputy foreign minister Sedat Onal will head the delegation,” the source said, without elaborating.


US President Donald Trump’s administration has demanded that Turkey release Brunson, an evangelical pastor who has lived in Turkey for more than two decades and has been charged with supporting a group that Ankara has blamed for an attempted coup in 2016. Brunson has denied the accusations.


Last week, Washington imposed sanctions on President Tayyip Erdogan’s justice minister and interior minister, saying they played leading roles in organisations responsible for Brunson’s arrest.


Erdogan has said Turkey would retaliate against the sanctions.


Over the weekend, the US Trade Representative (USTR) said it was reviewing Turkey’s duty-free access to the US market, after Ankara imposed retaliatory tariffs on US goods in response to American tariffs on steel and aluminium. The move could affect $1.7 billion of Turkish exports.


The US Embassy in Ankara said on Tuesday that the United States continued to be a solid ally of Turkey despite ongoing tensions, adding that the two countries had an active economic relationship, adding that the two countries had an active economic relationship.


In a tweet, the embassy also slammed Turkish media reports citing a US official saying Turkey’s lira currency would weaken to 7 against the dollar as “made up and baseless”, after the currency hit a series of record lows on Monday on the back of trade threats from Washington and a deepening diplomatic row.


Meanwhile, Turkey’s lira slipped in and out of negative territory on Tuesday, staying close to the previous day’s record low as concerns deepened about a rift with the United States and Erdogan’s influence over the central bank.


On Monday, the currency fell as much as 5.5 per cent to 5.4250 against the dollar, an all-time low and its biggest intraday drop in nearly a decade, after Washington said it was reviewing access to the US market for Turkey’s exports.


It was trading at 5.3035 to the dollar at 12:01 GMT and at 6.1535 per euro.


Turkey’s 10-year benchmark bond yield hit 20.09 per cent, the highest on record.


The depth of the sell-off reflects growing unease about the direction of monetary policy under Erdogan, a self-described “enemy of interest rates”, and the impact of worsening ties with the United States, a Nato ally and major trading partner.


— Agencies


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