With Hungary, Bulgaria and Serbia to depend on TurkStream, Turkey’s importance to increase in terms of energy security

The U.S. Congress, acting under the influences of anti-Turkey sentiment in Washington, is back in the game.

A new conversation with strategic perspective, realistic goals and achievable outcomes needs to be restarted between Turkey and the U.S.

Last week, one of the most significant developments in regards to Turkish-American relations was the meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump with dozens of Republican senators. Reportedly, during the meeting President Trump tried to convince the senators in regards to the potential negative impacts of adopting sanctions against Turkey to the U.S. and its bilateral relations.

Since the beginning of the S-400 crisis between Turkey and the U.S., many have focused on the state of relations between the two countries and the potential impact of this issue on the future of bilateral ties.

After months of deliberations, Turkey began to take delivery of the Russian S-400 missile defense system last week.

The ups and downs in Turkey-U.S. relations in the last two decades have generated a paradoxical situation for scholars and observers alike.

Ankara's confrontation with Washington on the delivery of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system has been one of Turkey's top foreign policy issues in the last several months.

Pesident Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Osaka, Japan marked a new chapter in the S-400 dispute. A textbook example of leader-to-leader diplomacy, that meeting paved the way for Trump lending support to the Turkish position on Patriot missiles, the Russian air defense system and the F-35 jet fighter program.

With the S-400 missile defense system's delivery around the corner, tensions are escalating between Turkey and the United States. The Turks are committed to buying the Russian system despite Washington's threats. The Pentagon's most recent letter to Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, which included a long list of threats, did not change Ankara's mind either.

The United States took its first 'concrete step' to encourage Turkey to rethink its plan to purchase the S-400 missile defense system from Russia. Washington was going to exclude Turkish pilots from the F-35 fighter jet training program, Reuters reported last week.

Turkey has a very busy agenda ahead of itself for the month of June..

The Trump administration is using sanctions, mostly economic sanctions, more aggressively compared to earlier administrations. Last summer, Washington imposed national security sanctions on Turkish steel and aluminum due to the detention of pastor Andrew Brunson in Turkey.

Earlier this week, senior Turkish officials visited the U.S. capital to prevent further deterioration of bilateral relations. Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan and Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalın shared Turkey's perspective with their counterparts.

It is becoming more and more apparent that the relationship with the U.S. will dominate our foreign policy agenda in the upcoming years. This issue is not only limited to the widening rift in bilateral relations over the recent period but essentially related to the changing strategic calculations of Washington and Ankara.

Turkey's decision to purchase Russian S-400 air defense system has become a major sticking point with the U.S. While Turkey attaches great importance to procuring the air defense system, U.S. policymakers, who consider Turkey's decision a complete deviation from its traditional alliance system, have begun to threaten the country.

New developments fuel tensions between Washington and Ankara. Despite U.S. President Donald Trump's promises to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over the phone, no problem has yet gone away. Quite the contrary, the foreign policy establishment and Congress continue to try and undermine bilateral relations.