New Delhi, July 29 -- ANKARA - The two men who met at a joint press conference in Ankara on Monday had complementary problems and, as it turned out, complementary offers. Iraq's Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi needed a security partner capable of suppressing militants who operate from territory his government does not fully control. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan needed both new arms export markets and continued oil flows from a neighbor whose crude has moved through Turkish pipelines for decades. They left the podium having offered each other both.

Erdogan said Turkey was ready to supply Iraq with defense industry products, a commitment he framed in terms of regional security rather than commercial opportunity. "We are ready to fulf...