• Warmest ties in years between NATO nations with biggest armies.
• Turkish leader hopes to overcome sanctions for F-35s.
• Trump and Erdogan aligned on Syria — but not Israel.

WASHINGTON/ANKARA: US President Donald Trump will host President Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Thursday, where the Turkish leader hopes to leverage the countries’ warmest bilateral ties in years to convince Washington to drop US sanctions and allow it to purchase F-35 fighter jets.

Erdogan’s first visit to the White House in about six years comes at a time when Ankara is keen to take advantage of a US administration eager to make deals in return for big-ticket arms and trade agreements.

The administration of former president Joe Biden kept Turkey at arm’s length partly over what it saw as the fellow NATO member’s close ties with Russia. Under Trump, who views Moscow more favourably and has closer personal ties with Erdogan, Ankara is hoping for a better relationship.

Trump and Erdogan had a checkered relationship during the Republican president’s first term. But since his return to the White House, their interests have aligned on Syria — source of the biggest bilateral strain in the past — where the US and Turkey now both strongly back the central government.

They remain sharply at odds over US ally Israel’s attacks on Gaza, which Ankara calls a genocide — a potential wild card in what are otherwise expected to be friendly and transactional talks in the Oval Office.

In his UN address on Tuesday, Erdogan, who has led Turkey for 22 years, said that “anyone who fails to speak out and take a stand against the barbarity in Gaza shares responsibility for this atrocity”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio later told Fox News that world leaders, including Erdogan, could “say what they want to say, but at the end of the day, when they want something done, they want to come to the White House”.

US sanctions block F-35 sales

The mood shift has renewed Turkish hopes that Trump and Erdogan, who have exchanged mutual praise, can find a way around US sanctions imposed by Trump himself in 2020 over Turkey’s acquisition of Russian S-400 missile defences.

That, in turn, could pave the way for Ankara to buy Lockheed Martin’s advanced F-35 fighter jets, for which it was both a buyer and manufacturer until it was barred over the S-400s.

“Despite expected resistance from US Congress, a green light for Turkish acquisition of F-35s is not inconceivable, provided the political will is there on both sides and diplomats are allowed to hammer out a framework that addresses all the known issues,” said Timur Soylemez, a former Turkish ambassador with experience in Turkey-US relations.

Trump said ahead of the meeting he expected F-35 talks “to conclude positively”.

Erdogan has said the defence industry, including the topic of F-35s and ongoing negotiations over 40 F-16 jets Ankara also wants, would be a focus of the meeting, along with regional wars, energy and trade.

A US official said Washington had in recent days drafted a statement of intent — a document used to facilitate talks — for several sales to Turkey, including the new F-16s that would bolster its existing fleet.

Turkey asked for advanced equipment and modifications on the F-16s in their order, making the jets cost more than a standard F-35, the official said. But F-35s were omitted from the draft statement because the US cannot legally sell them while Turkey has the S-400s, the person added.

Turkish government officials did not immediately comment on the F-16 costs.

Deal on Boeing planes also on agenda

Turkey, NATO’s second-largest army, wants to ramp up air power to counter what it sees as growing threats in the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, where it neighbours Russia and Ukraine.

In addition to the F-16s and F-35s, it also wants to procure 40 Eurofighter Typhoons — irking regional US allies Israel and Greece.

At the meeting, Trump is expected to highlight a Turkish agreement to buy more than 200 Boeing aircraft, for which Turkish Airlines is negotiating. The US official told Reuters the talks included 787 and 737 jetliners, and about $10 billion in GE aircraft engines.

COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s Aalborg airport, used for commercial and military flights, was closed due to drones in its airspace, police said early on Thursday, two days after the country’s main Copenhagen airport was shut over drone sightings that raised European security concerns.

Danish national police said the drones followed a similar pattern to the ones that had halted flights at Copenhagen airport for four hours a few days earlier. Local police later said the drones had left the Aalborg area after about three hours.

Denmark said on Tuesday the incident at Copenhagen airport was the most serious attack yet on its critical infrastructure and linked it to a series of suspected Russian drone incursions and other disruptions across Europe.

The closure of Aalborg airport also affected Denmark’s armed forces because it is used as a military base, police added. The Danish armed forces said they were assisting local and national police with the investigation, but declined to comment further.

Authorities in Norway also shut the airspace at Oslo airport for three hours on Monday evening after a drone was seen.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday that the drones that halted flights at Copenhagen airport were part of a “pattern of persistent contestation at our borders.”

Suspicions of Russian involvement in the Copenhagen airport incident were unfounded, Russia’s ambassador to Denmark said on Tuesday.

Norwegian and Danish authorities are in close contact over the Copenhagen and Oslo incidents on Monday, but their investigation has not yet established a connection, Norway’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

More than one drone

Northern Jutland police told reporters “more than one drone” had been sighted near Aalborg airport and they were flying with lights on.

The drones were first seen at about 9:44 pm (1944 GMT) on Wednesday, according to police, and remained in the airspace until 12:54 am on Thursday.

Eurocontrol, which oversees European air traffic control, had earlier said arrivals and departures at Aalborg airport would be at a “zero rate” until 0400 GMT on Thursday due to drone activity in the vicinity.

The first flight from Aalborg on Thursday is scheduled at 0420 GMT, the airport’s website showed.

Northern Jutland police said they could not specify the type of drones or whether they were the same as the ones flying over Copenhagen airport on Monday.

“It is too early to say what the goal of the drones is and who is the actor behind,” a police official said.

Northern Jutland police later said that efforts to take down the drones had been unsuccessful and the drone operators had yet to be apprehended.

Southern Jutland police said in a post on X that drones had also been observed near the airports in the Danish towns of Esbjerg, Sonderborg and Skrydstrup.

Fighter Wing Skrydstrup in Southern Jutland is the base for Denmark’s F-16 and F-35 fighter jets.

National police commissioner Thorkild Fogde said many people around the country had reported drone sightings to the police since Monday.

“Of course, many of these reports do not cover activities that are of interest to the police or the military, but some of them do, and I think the one in Aalborg does,” he said.

Police said they were investigating further on site and cooperating with the national intelligence service and the armed forces, as well as authorities in other countries.

There is no danger to passengers at Aalborg airport or residents in the area, police said.

They added that three flights had been diverted to other airports.

Hundreds of thousands of people in southern China were clearing up Thursday after powerful Typhoon Ragasa crashed through Guangdong Province, ripping down trees, destroying fences and blasting signs off buildings.

Ragasa churned into Guangdong, home to tens of millions of people, with winds up to 145 kilometres (90 miles) per hour, on Wednesday after sweeping past Hong Kong and killing at least 14 in Taiwan.

AFP journalists at the impact point around the city of Yangjiang on Thursday saw fallen trees, while road signs and debris were strewn across the streets.

A light rain and breeze still lingered as residents worked to clean up the damage; however, authorities have not reported any storm-related fatalities.

On Hailing — an island administered by Yangjiang — relief workers attempted to clear a huge tree that had fallen across a wide road.

Cars drove on muddy tracks to get around the wreckage as the team worked to saw off branches.

A seafood restaurant had sustained heavy damage, its back roof completely collapsed, or in parts flown away entirely.

“The winds were so strong, you could see it completely ripped everything apart,” said restaurant worker Lin Xiaobing, 50.

“There´s no electricity (at home),” she said while helping clear up the mess inside the restaurant, where the floors were covered in water, mud and debris. “Today, some homes still have electricity and others don´t.”

The island is a popular holiday spot and many locals rely on the tourism industry to make a living.

“We can’t do business here during the National Day,” she said, referring to China´s annual holiday period centred on October 1 but that lasts until October 8.

“We were planning to do some business this National Day to make up for it,” she added. “But now we may not be able to.”

Taiwan fatalities

Ragasa’s passage in Taiwan killed at least 14 and injured dozens more when a decades-old barrier lake burst in eastern Hualien county, according to regional officials who late Wednesday revised the death toll down from 17 after eliminating duplicate cases.

Authorities initially said 152 people were unaccounted for, but later made contact with more than 100 of them and were still trying to confirm the actual number of missing.

The storm made landfall in mainland China near Hailing Island on Wednesday evening.

By that point, authorities across China had already ordered businesses and schools to shut down in at least 10 cities across the nation´s south, affecting tens of millions of people.

Nearly 2.2 million people in Guangdong were relocated by Wednesday afternoon, but local officials later said several cities in the province started lifting restrictions on schools and businesses.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said Ragasa made its second landfall in Beihai, Guangxi, on Thursday morning as a tropical storm.

Chinese authorities earmarked the equivalent of about $49.2 million to support rescue and relief work in regions hit by Typhoon Ragasa, Xinhua news agency said.

Hong Kong reopens

Hong Kong resumed flights out of its international airport on Thursday after a 36-hour suspension, reopening businesses, transportation services and some schools after the world’s most powerful tropical cyclone this year lashed the financial hub.

Ragasa brought the densely populated city to a standstill from Tuesday afternoon, after sweeping through the northern Philippines and Taiwan where it killed 14, before making landfall on the southern Chinese city of Yangjiang on Wednesday.

More than 100 people were injured in Hong Kong, where authorities imposed the highest typhoon signal 10 for most of Wednesday.

On Thursday, the observatory maintained its second-lowest typhoon signal 3, keeping kindergartens and some schools shut as Ragasa moved away from the city and weakened into a tropical storm.

Huge waves crashed over areas of Hong Kong’s eastern and southern shoreline on Wednesday, with widespread flooding submerging some roads and residential properties.

Seawater surged through the Fullerton hotel on the island’s south, shattering glass doors and inundating the lobby. No injuries were reported and the hotel said services were operating as normal.