Rex Tillerson and Tayyip Erdogan had a "productive and open" speech Thursday on improving ties recently strained over their policies in Syria.
Tillerson arrived in Turkey on Thursday for two days that officials said would probably have been rife with discussions after the reports wore on a series of problems, notably US support for the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG, seen as terrorists by the Turkey.
Last month, Turkey launched an air and ground assault in the northwestern African region of Syria to lead the YPG from the area south of the border. Ankara believes that the YPG are an arm of the PKK, a bandit group that led to a decades-long insurrection in Turkey.
The militia is the main element of the Syrian democratic forces (SDF), which the United States armed, trained and helped with air support and special forces to fight the Islamic State.
"The two have engaged in a productive and open conversation on a mutually beneficial path in the relationship between the United States and Turkey," said a US State Department spokesperson traveling with Tillerson.
In a photo distributed by the Turkish presidency before the meeting of more than three hours began, the two are shown tense faces, even if only Tillerson hinted at a smile.
Erdogan expressed his priorities and expectations on Syria, the fight against terrorism and other regional issues, a Turkish presidential source said.
Ahead of the meeting, Turkey had asked the United States to expel the YPG from the SDF forces of the anti-Islamic state it is supporting in Syria.
"We have asked for this relationship to end, we want all support given to the Syrian arm of the PKK, the YPG, to end," Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli told reporters at a briefing in Brussels, one day after meeting US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis on the sidelines of a NATO meeting.
"We asked for this facility to be removed from SDF," he said.
Tillerson, who is on a five-city tour, told a press conference in Beirut before arriving in Ankara that the United States and Turkey had the same main objectives, and reduced their differences. Productive will be the meeting scheduled for today with the Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Islamic State fighters were led last year from all centers occupying Syria and Iraq, but Washington still sees them as a threat, capable of carrying out an insurgency and plotting attacks elsewhere.
Ankara has put more emphasis in recent months on the need to fight the Kurdish militia and said the US is simply using one terrorist group to fight another.
Turkey says that the United States still has to honor several commitments: stop arming the YPG, resume arms after the Islamic State has been defeated in Syria and bring YPG forces back from Manbij, a Syrian city about 100 km (60 miles) east of Afrin.
Canikli also said Mattis had told him that the United States was working on a plan to recover weapons supplied to the YPG, especially heavy weapons. However, Tillerson later said that Washington "had never given heavy weapons" to the YPG and therefore there was "nothing to take back".
Turkey is the United States' main Muslim ally within NATO and one of Washington's most powerful friends in the Middle East dating back to the Cold War era. But widening the differences over Syrian politics is just one of the many issues that have caused a break in that strategic relationship.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the NATO meeting in Brussels, Mattis said his talks with his Turkish counterpart were open, but they acknowledged the differences complained by both sides.
"I believe we are finding areas of uncommon ground, where sometimes war only gives you the wrong alternatives to choose from ... We continue to work together on how to ensure their legitimate concerns are addressed and resolved."
The Turkish offensive against the YPG in Syria has so far been limited to Afrin, a border region where the United States is not believed to have troops on the ground.
But Turkey has openly discussed extending it to other areas where its forces could potentially come into contact with units supported by the Americans. He says that Washington should take his forces away; the United States says it has no intention of withdrawing.