Joe Biden to visit Ukraine, Turkey next month
US Vice President Joe Biden will visit Ukraine as well as Turkey next month.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Vice President Joe Biden next month visits Ukraine as well as Turkey, where fighting across the border in the Syrian town of Kobane has sparked tensions with Washington.
During the week of November 17, Biden is set to meet President Petro Poroshenko, after pro-Western parties scored big wins in Ukrainian elections, the White House said Monday.
The US vice president will then travel on to Morocco and Turkey, where he ll meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
US airdrops of weapons and medical supplies to Kurdish fighters in Kobane, under siege by Islamic State jihadists, have prompted tensions with Ankara.
Turkey last week said it would let Kurdish peshmerga fighters from Iraq cross its territory to join the battle in Kobane, but this has yet to happen.
According to the Turkish press, Erdogan has accused Syria s main Kurdish party of not wanting Kurdish peshmerga fighters from Iraq to help it fight.
Erdogan has reportedly said the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which has been leading the defense of Kobane, fears losing its influence in northern Syria when the peshmerga arrive.
