WASHINGTON

Türkiye’s ambassador to the US said Thursday that Ankara and Washington do not have the "luxury" of putting the emphasis on disagreements while stressing the need to focus on points of convergence.

Speaking at a reception as part of the 39th American-Turkish Conference, Sedat Onal described Türkiye and the US as "two staunch NATO allies," adding that the friendship and solidarity between the two countries "stood the test of time.”

Onal said Türkiye is surrounded by almost all "crisis flashpoints" around the world, noting the wars in Ukraine and Gaza as well as other conflicts in the region including in Syria, Iraq, Libya and the South Caucasus.

"This is the environment in which we need to operate in coordination and cooperation with stakeholders like America in order to serve peace, security and stability in the region and beyond the region," Onal said.

"In such an environment, we do not have the luxury of putting the emphasis on our disagreements, we need to increase our convergences," he said.

"This is something that we are going to do in my tenure here, to try to increase points of convergence to address issues that are of common concern to us, but also very important for regional peace and security," he added.

Onal said that one important strong dimension of the Turkish-US relationship is economic and commercial relations.

Speaking at the same reception, Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat said he had a "constructive and fruitful meeting" with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, noting that they agreed to reach $100 billion in bilateral trade.

"Turkish-American relations will speed up and will be fostered in the near future, in all levels, from investment to trade, from services to industry, from financial cooperation to green economy cooperation. In all levels, we are ready to talk, we are ready to move ahead," Bolat said.