U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a trip to Turkey that Washington would help Turkey “for as long as it takes” after earthquakes rocked the country two weeks ago, as authorities demolished damaged buildings.

The U.S. sent a search and rescue team to Turkey, along with medical supplies, concrete-breaking machinery and additional funding of $85 million in humanitarian aid that also covers Syria.

Speaking after talks with Mr Blinken, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said there was no need to wait for a disaster and challenging times to improve relations with the U.S.

Mr Cavusoglu, alongside Mr Blinken, told a news conference that Turkey couldn’t buy U.S. F-16 warplanes with pre-conditions and believed the issue could be overcome if the U.S. administration maintained a decisive stance.

“The United States and Turkey do not agree on every issue, but it is a partnership that has withstood challenges,” Mr Blinken told a joint news conference with the Turkish Foreign Minister in Ankara.

The U.S. State Department has said the total U.S. humanitarian assistance to support the earthquake response in Turkey, and Syria has reached $185 million.

Relations between the NATO allies have been strained since 2019, when Ankara acquired Russian missile defence systems, among other sources of tension between them.

Mr Cavusoglu told reporters he had discussed a planned $20 billion deal for U.S. F-16 warplanes with Mr Blinken. He said that Turkey would like the U.S. administration to send the formal notification for the F-16s to Congress.

On Monday, rescue work wound down after the February 6 earthquakes killed more than 46,000 people in southern Turkey and northwest Syria.

Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said nearly 13,000 excavators, cranes, trucks and other industrial vehicles had been sent to the quake zone.

The death toll in Turkey had risen to 41,020, AFAD said, and it was expected to climb, with some 385,000 apartments in the country known to have been destroyed or seriously damaged and many people still missing.

Among the survivors of the February 6 earthquakes in Turkey and Syria are about 356,000 pregnant women who urgently need access to reproductive health services, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA) said at the weekend.

The women include 226,000 in Turkey and 130,000 in Syria, about 38,800 of whom will deliver in the next month. 

(Reuters/NAN)