WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has invited U.S. President Donald Trump to visit Turkey in 2019, White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said on Monday.
"While nothing definite is being planned, the President is open to a potential meeting in the future," Gidley told reporters.
Trump had a phone call with Erdogan on Monday over Syria issues, describing the conversation as "long and productive."
"We discussed ISIS (Islamic State), our mutual involvement in Syria, and the slow and highly coordinated pullout of U.S. troops from the area," said Trump on Twitter.
The Trump administration announced on Dec. 19 that it started bringing U.S. troops home from Syria after claiming a victory in the fight against the Islamic State (IS), without revealing any detailed timetable.
The decision to withdraw U.S. troops in Syria was widely regarded as the last straw for Defense Secretary James Mattis' resignation on Dec. 20.
The departing Mattis has signed the executive order detailing the U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria, reported U.S. media on Sunday.
The United States has deployed troops since 2015, and there are more than 2,000 U.S. soldiers in Syria currently.
The United States has been backing the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for a long time in the battles against the IS, managing to make important achievement in defeating IS in its de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria in 2017.
However, Turkey has for long been outright about its hostility to the Kurdish forces.
