US approves $23bn sale of F-16 war planes to Turkey
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 Guardian reports.
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.
