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 Obama met Tayyip Erdogan in Paris, where he has been attending the
climate summit, a week after Turkish jets downed a Russian warplane
along the Syrian border.
"The United States supports Turkey's right to defend itself and its
air space ... We discussed how Turkey and Russia can work together
to de-escalate tensions" and find a diplomatic path to resolve the
issue," Obama said.
Obama said he stressed to Erdogan that the Islamic State militant
group was the enemy that all sides needed to focus on.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called earlier on Tuesday for
the opening of communication channels between Turkey and Russia to
prevent further incidents like the downing of the warplane.
 Putin, who has signed a decree imposing economic sanctions on Turkey
over the incident, has said Turkey shot down the jet because it
wanted to protect supplies of oil from Islamic State militants.
Erdogan has called claims that Turkey buys oil from Islamic State
"slander".
Erdogan said on Tuesday following the meeting with Obama that the
two had discussed Turkish-Russian tensions.
"Our concern is to not come out badly from this, but on the contrary
to turn this into peace and contribute to the peace in the region,"
Erdogan said.
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Obama added that the U.S. was eager to accelerate work on its
military-to-military relationship with Turkey to ensure its NATO
ally was safe and to help resolve the conflict in Syria.
(Additional reporting by Daren Butler in Istanbul; Editing by James
Regan and Andrew Heavens)
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