The Biden administration has announced its approved a $US23 billion deal to sell F-16 warplanes to Turkey, after Ankara ratified Sweden’s Nato membership, the state department said.
The state department will now notify Congress of the agreement, as well as of a separate $8.6bn sale of 40 F-35s to Greece.
Turkey will get 40 new F-16s and upgrades to 79 of the jets in its existing fleet, the state department said in a news release.
The US did not green light the transaction until Turkey’s instruments of ratification of Sweden’s membership had arrived in Washington, a US official said, highlighting the highly sensitive nature of the negotiations, reports Agence France-Presse.
Turkey’s parliament ratified Sweden’s Nato membership on Tuesday after more than a year of delays that upset western efforts to show resolve in the face of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan initially objected to Sweden’s Nato bid over Stockholm’s perceived acceptance of Kurdish groups that Ankara views as “terrorist” organisations. Sweden responded by tightening its anti-terrorism legislation and taking other security steps demanded by Erdogan.
But Erdogan then turned to an unmet US pledge to deliver a batch of F-16 fighter jets that has met resistance in Congress because of Turkey’s perceived backsliding on human rights and standoffs with fellow Nato member Greece.
The powerful chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, Democrat Ben Cardin, said Friday he would permit the F-16 sale to Turkey.
“My approval of Turkey’s request to purchase F-16 aircrafts has been contingent on Turkish approval of Sweden’s Nato membership. But make no mistake: This was not a decision I came to lightly,” he said.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken led an intense diplomatic effort to broker the deal, telling the Turkish president three times during a trip to Ankara just after the February 2023 earthquake that there would be no planes if Turkey blocked Sweden’s Nato bid, the US official said.
Leaders of the Senate foreign relations committee and House of Representatives foreign affairs committees review every major foreign arms sale. They regularly ask questions or raise concerns over human rights or diplomatic issues that can delay or stop such deals.
After the transfer of the formal notification by the US state department, Congress has 15 days to object to the sale, after which it is considered final.
US officials do not expect the Congress to block either sale, despite criticism of Turkey by some members.
Athens meanwhile strongly opposed the sale due to unresolved territorial disputes with Turkey in the energy-rich Mediterranean region.
The US agreement with Turkey hinged first on Athens not obstructing the sale, and Greece was simultaneously granted more advanced F-35s.
Turkey’s ageing air force would benefit from new F-16s, as it has suffered from the expulsion from the US-led F-35 joint strike fighter program in 2019 over Erdogan’s decision to acquire an advanced Russian missile defense system.
Turkey’s green light of Swedish Nato membership leaves Hungary as the last holdout in an accession process that Sweden and Finland began in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán on Tuesday invited his Swedish counterpart to Budapest to discuss the bid, although hints emerged of strains between the two countries.
With Agence France-Presse and Reuters
