US President Joe Biden announced that he had a telephone conversation on Monday with Turkish President Recep Erdogan, in which the re-elected Turkish leader reiterated Ankara’s desire to buy F-16 fighter jets from the United States, while Washington takes transmitted that he wants Ankara to give up its objection to Sweden’s accession to NATO, reports Reuters.
“I spoke to Erdogan. I congratulated him. He still wants to work something out about the F-16. I told him we want to understand about Sweden, so let’s work it out. And so we’ll hold again connection with each other,” Joe Biden told reporters before leaving the White House for Delaware.
“We will talk more about this next week”, added the American president, quoted by News.ro.
Sweden’s accession to NATO must be ratified by all NATO members. Both Turkey and Hungary have not yet approved this candidacy.
Turkey has tried to buy $20 billion worth of F-16 jets and nearly 80 upgrade kits from the United States, but the sale has been blocked by objections from the US Congress over Ankara’s troubled rights record human rights and policy regarding Syria, even though the Biden administration has repeatedly stated that it supports the provision of aircraft to Turkey.
A much smaller $259 million package, which included software upgrades for Turkey’s current fleet of F-16 fighter jets, was approved by the US Congress earlier this year, days after Turkey ratified Finland’s accession to NATO.
On the other hand, the Biden administration has repeatedly rejected the thesis that it would act “quid pro quo” for the sale of F-16s and the expansion of NATO, although Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in January that the American side made it clear that a approval of NATO candidacies would be viewed positively by Congress.
In a February letter to Biden, a bipartisan group of senators said Turkey’s refusal to ratify accession protocols for Sweden and Finland, which were still pending at the time, would “call into question this stalled sale.” referring to F-16 jets.
A source familiar with the discussions said the United States had previously told Turkey it would be difficult to get congressional approval for the F-16 unless Ankara gave Sweden the green light.
Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year, renouncing the policy of military non-alignment after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Turkey ratified Finland’s NATO membership in late March, but continued to oppose Sweden’s candidacy, saying Stockholm harbors members of militant groups it considers terrorist. Like Turkey, Hungary did not approve Sweden’s candidacy.
Sweden’s accession to NATO by mid-July, when the Alliance summit is scheduled in Lithuania, is among Washington’s main priorities.
The Turkish presidency, in a brief statement regarding the conversation between Biden and Erdogan, said the two leaders agreed to deepen cooperation in all aspects of their bilateral ties, the importance of which, they said, has grown even more in the face of challenges regional and global.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a new, third term as president on Sunday, continuing his third decade in power in Ankara.
Editor : G.M.
