Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday expressed willingness to buy F-16 fighter jets from the United States after US President Joe Biden spoke to him, saying he then told him that Washington conveyed to Ankara its objections to Sweden’s NATO accession. was eager to see.
The exchange took place in a call when Biden congratulated Erdogan for winning in Sunday’s presidential election.
“I talked to Erdogan. I congratulated Erdogan. He still wants do some work on the F-16s, I told him we want to make a deal with Sweden, so let’s get it done. And so we’ll be in touch with each other,” Biden told reporters before leaving the White House for Delaware.
“We’re going to talk more about it next week,” he said.
The Turkish presidency’s statement on the call was brief and vague. It said the two leaders agreed to deepen cooperation on all aspects of their bilateral ties, the importance of which they said has grown even more in the face of regional and global challenges.
Turkey wants to buy $20 billion worth of F-16s from the United States but the sale has not proceeded rapidly due to objections from the US Congress, even though the Biden administration has repeatedly said it supports it.
NATO-Türkiye relations under Erdogan
Sweden and Finland applied for Nato membership last year, bypassing longstanding policies of military non-alignment following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but their bids need approval from all Nato member states. .
Turkey ratified Finland’s NATO accession in late March, but continued to object to Sweden, saying Stockholm harbors members of extremist groups it considers terrorists. Hungary has also not yet approved Sweden’s bid.
Seeing Sweden in NATO by mid-July when the alliance is due to hold a summit of leaders in Lithuania is one of the top priorities for Washington.