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WASHINGTON – Ending months of negotiations, the US government on Friday approved a $23 billion (sh87.7 trillion) deal to sell F-16 warplanes to Turkey. This was after Ankara ratified Sweden’s NATO membership, the State Department said.
As required by US law, the State Department notified Congress of the agreement. This is as well as a separate $8.6 billion (sh32.7 trillion) 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 United States did not green-light the transaction until Turkey’s instruments of ratification of Sweden’s membership had arrived in Washington. All instruments of ratification must be deposited in the US capital — a city NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will visit next week.
Washington will also host a summit in July to mark the 75th anniversary of the trans-Atlantic alliance.
Turkey’s parliament ratified Sweden’s NATO membership on Tuesday after more than a year of delays. This delay had upset Western efforts to show resolve in the face of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
What delayed the deal!
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan initially objected to Sweden’s NATO bid. This is over Stockholm’s perceived acceptance of Kurdish groups that Ankara views as “terrorist” organizations.
Sweden responded by tightening its anti-terrorism legislation and taking other security steps demanded by Erdogan.
However, Erdogan then turned to an unmet US pledge to deliver a batch of F-16 fighter jets. This 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. However, that it was “not a decision I came to lightly.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken led an intense diplomatic effort to broker the deal. He told 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.
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. Greece was then simultaneously granted more advanced F-35s.
Turkey’s aging air force would benefit from new F-16s. This is because it has suffered from Ankara’s expulsion from the US-led F-35 joint strike fighter program in 2019. This happened because Erdogan decided to acquire an advanced Russian missile defense system.
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