Donald Trump To Host Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan To Strengthen Cooperation To Combat Terrorism

President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are set to meet for the first time since Trump took office. The two leaders will meet in the White House, next Tuesday, while Erdogan's visit to Washington, the White House said in an announcement, Wednesday.

“The two leaders will discuss how to further strengthen our bilateral relationship and deepen our cooperation to confront terrorism in all its forms,” the White House office of the press secretary said in a statement and officially announced the May 16 gathering, according to Associated Press.

The news of the meeting came a day after Trump gave the Pentagon the permission to deploy Kurdish militias in Syria as part of a renewed move to drive the Islamic State out of the pivotal city of Raqqa, despite the strong opposition received from Erdogan and the Turkish government. According to the Associated Press, Erdogan called on the White House to withdraw and alter its decision ahead of their planned meeting next week.

Read: Turkey Presidential Elections: Opposition Party Wants Erdogan's Powers To Be Nullified

Kurdish fighters have faced opposition from the Turkish government because they have been aligned with an extension of the Kurdish Worker’s Party called People’s Protection Units, which has been labeled as a terrorist group by the NATO ally, Turkey.

Erdogan, speaking at a joint press conference with the president of Sierra Leone, said that “fight against terrorism should not be lead with another terror organization.”

“We want to know that our allies will side with us, and not with terror organizations,” Erdogan added, the Hill reported.

The Turkish president has expressed his support for the president of the United States earlier, when Trump ordered the firing of tomahawk missiles at a Syrian base in retaliation to a chemical weapons attack on the citizens, which was allegedly conducted by the Syrian President Bashar Assad in April.

Given its proximity to Syria and Iraq, Turkey has been a close ally in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group.

Trump’s meeting with Erdogan will not be without controversy as Trump had called the Turkish leader to congratulate him on a referendum that was passed in April and Trump’s gesture drew harsh comments from critics who said that the president was turning a blind eye to autocratic leaders around the world.

Read: ISIS In Syria: Turkey Kills 56 Islamic State Fighters In Border Fight

The referendum win in April, provided the Turkish leader with new executive powers, which was criticized and people feared that he is leading Turkey toward a dictatorship, according to CBS News.

In Turkey, the president was considered a head of state, rather than a head of government. As a result of the new referendum, the prime ministership was abolished. The Turkish president can now bypass the parliament under certain circumstances and can also directly appoint numerous judges. He will also be able to appoint ministers and other senior government officials, issue decrees and declare states of emergency.

Opposition parties in Turkey had claimed that the referendum was passed with a series of voting irregularities.

The White House had said last month that Trump’s phone call to Erdogan congratulating him on the referendum’s win was not to show support for the measure.

“We want to encourage democracy,” spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the time. “And again, the purpose of the President’s call yesterday was not to discourage that but simply to talk about some of the things, like Syria, where they can work together."