BERLIN (AP) — Germany's president is entering talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with the hope that the state visit leads to a thaw in relations between the two NATO allies.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the RND media group Friday that the three-day visit to Germany isn't "an expression of normalization (of relations), we are a long way from that, but it could be a start."

The two countries are strategically critical to one another, with Turkey looking to Germany and the European Union for help with its economic woes, and the EU counting on Ankara to reduce the flow of migrants to Europe.

But they've clashed over numerous issues to the point where Erdogan accused German officials of acting like Nazis, prompting Chancellor Angela Merkel to condemn the Turkish president's words.