Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, touched down in Turkey to visit troops at Incirlik AB, the same base that dealt with a power outage and frozen operations during a coup attempt last month. While in Turkey, Dunford is visiting with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Gen. Hulusi Akar, chief of the Turkish General Staff, according to a Defense Department release. Dunford is not meeting with Turkey’s embattled President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however he will condemn “in the strongest terms” the recent coup attempt and reaffirm the US and Turkey’s partnership. Operations at Incirlik have returned to normal following the power outage after the coup attempt, and the base ran low on reserve fuel before power came back.
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.