US supports F-16 sales to Türkiye
But conditions remain unchanged

REGION  31 May 2023 - 09:54

The White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has said that Presidents Joe Biden and Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a conversation on the F-16 fighter jet supplies to Türkiye, where President Biden expressed his strong desire for Ankara to approve Sweden's application to join NATO.

"Any conditions, as it relates to F-16s — the sales of F-16s to Türkiye and — as with them approving Sweden’s bid to join NATO — look, that is not — that is not — that is not a condition. President Biden — has long been clear that he supports selling F-16s — you’ve heard that from this podium — to Türkiye, which would help facilitate NATO interoperability," Jean-Pierre said, per the White House press service.

She added that Congress has an important role in providing arms sales while the President has been very clear about where he stands on that issue.

President Biden said Turkish President Erdogan in a call on May 29 repeated Ankara's desire to buy F-16 fighter jets from the United States, while Biden told him Washington wanted Ankara to drop its objection to Sweden's joining NATO.

The exchange took place when Biden called Erdogan to congratulate him on his victory in Türkiye's presidential election on May 28.

"I spoke to Erdogan. I congratulated Erdogan. He still wants to work on something on the F-16s. I told him we wanted a deal with Sweden, so let's get that done. And so we'll be back in touch with one another," Biden told reporters before departing the White House for Delaware, informs Reuters.

Asked if he expected any movement from Erdogan on Sweden's NATO membership, Biden said: "I raised that issue with him. We're going to talk more about it next week."

Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year, ditching long-held policies of military non-alignment following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Bids for membership must be approved by all NATO members. Türkiye and Hungary have yet to approve Sweden's bid.

Türkiye has sought to buy $20 billion worth of F-16s and nearly 80 modernization kits from the United States. But the sale has been stalled due to objections from the US Congress over Ankara's refusal to green light NATO enlargement, its human rights record and Syria policy, even though the Biden administration has repeatedly said it supports the sale.

A much smaller $259 million package including avionics software upgrades for Turkey's current fleet of F-16 fighter aircraft was cleared by US Congress earlier this year, days after Turkey ratified Finland's NATO accession.

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