Speaking at the Charlie Rose Show on PBS, Erdogan said they had acted before a request had been made on sending additional troops to Afghanistan and raised the amount of soldiers to 1 thousand 750.
He said further that he had suggested to President Obama that an Afghan National Army be setup and get trained. In response to the question on why Turkey was not sending combat troops, The Prime Minister said Turkey's tasks were determined from the very start and that they can not hurt the trust of the Afghan people, as this could stop them from carrying out their tasks.
Erdogan said further that they had taken up US-Turkey cooperation in regional matters during his meeting with Obama. The Prime Minister added that they had taken up what they can do regarding the fight against terrorism, Iraq, Iran's nuclear program, normalization process of Turkey-Armenia relations, and the Cyprus issue. Reminding that Obama had used the term "model partnership", Erdogan said they were now working on model cooperation.