ANKARA, July 11. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday during his meeting with US President Joe Biden that a new stage in relations had begun in the republic's relations with the United States.

"I want to thank you for extending your congratulations on my re-election," the TPT news channel quoted Erdogan as saying. "I believe it is high time for consultations at the level of heads of state within the strategic mechanism."

"I view our meeting, held today on the NATO sidelines, as our first step towards that. Our past meetings have been a sort of warm-up. But now we are beginning a new phase."

The Turkish leader added that he still had five years left in office and told Biden, according to TPT, that he wished him "a successful presidential election campaign."

Biden replied that he was anticipating "working together for five more years."

Talks between Erdogan and Biden were scheduled before the summit and were deemed by Ankara as a very important step toward normalizing relations between the two countries considering their differences in opinion about NATO controversies, including Sweden's bid to join the alliance.