Joe Biden, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan Trade Boasts

During a trip to Istanbul, Vice President Joe Biden took part in something of a verbal sparring match with a Turkish politician.

It started at the U.S. Delegation to Global Entrepreneurship Summit, a yearly meeting of students and entrepreneurs, where Ali Babacan, a deputy prime minister of Turkey, addressed the crowd before Biden spoke.

As The New York Times reports, Babacan "delivered a confident address about Turkey?s future and its status as a model Muslim democracy," pinning Europe's problems on a crisis in leadership.

?If they had a strong government like we have in Turkey,? he remarked, ?they would be able to solve their problems.? He went on to predict that Turkey was on the brink of global power, saying, ?The fast fish, not the big fish, eats the small fish."

At the beginning of his speech, Biden responded pointedly to the implication that the U.S. is a dying empire. From The Wall Street Journal:

"I'm not going to spend any time talking to you about the U.S. economy, but I am going to suggest that we, all nations, are in this together," Mr. Biden began. "The fact that our economy is three times as large as the next-largest economy and larger than the next four combined does not make us immune to what's happening around the world."

The two were seen smiling and posing for photos after the event, so it appears an international incident was averted.

In a question-and-answer session with a senior administration official, journalists covering the Vice President got cautious confirmation that Biden had strayed from his prepared remarks and personally added the response to Babacan. From the Q & A transcript:

Q: Can you tell us -- the Vice President seemed to be very pointed in the opening part of his remarks today at the summit. Can you tell us about --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: He did in what -- about what way?

Q: Well, he seemed to be almost responding to some of the things that the Foreign Minister had said in his remarks about Europe and the West in general?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No, I -- I don't think --

Q: So that was all planned in his speech?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes, it was.

Q: He didn't add anything at the last minute?

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: There was nothing --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: She?s talking about the top of the speech where he said -- we are -- our economy is three times the size of any other --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Oh, yes, the very beginning. Actually --

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I?m not here to talk about the American economy.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Right. No, I actually -- I didn't talk to him about that so I don't know what exactly he was thinking about because I think -- this is speculation -- that because other speakers had been talking about their economies, he wanted to make clear that that wasn?t the focus of his speech but he wanted to say -- get in a few words nonetheless -- but I don't know the --

While in Istanbul, Biden also urged Turkey to join the United States in imposing economic sanctions against Iran.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/03/joe-biden-turkey-ali-babacan_n_1127713.html

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