Payback? Foreign media: Turkey’s parliament approves Sweden’s “entry into the treaty”, Biden urges the United States to immediately sell F-16s to Turkey
“Exclusive: Biden urges the U.S. Congress to ‘immediately’ approve the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.” Reuters disclosed on the 24th that U.S. President Biden wrote to the leaders of several important committees in the U.S. Congress on Wednesday (24th) He said that once Turkey completes the process of approving Sweden’s membership of NATO, he will formally notify Congress to sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.
According to previous reports, on the evening of the 23rd local time, Turkey’s Grand National Assembly voted and approved the motion on Sweden’s accession to the NATO Protocol with 287 votes in favor, 55 votes against, and 4 abstentions. Reuters reported on the 24th that after Sweden’s “joining” schedule was delayed for 20 months, the Turkish parliament’s vote cleared the biggest obstacle to NATO expansion.
According to the latest report from Reuters, a U.S. official said that in a letter sent to senior members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee from both parties, Biden urged them to approve the deal “immediately”. In addition, sources said that earlier on the 24th, the White House had sent a letter to members of Congress urging approval of a plan to sell $20 billion worth of F-16 fighter jets and their modernization kits to Turkey.
Reuters stated that the White House did not respond to a request for comment in response to the above revelations.
Regarding the Turkish Parliament’s approval of Sweden’s membership of NATO, the Russian Satellite News Agency analyzed on January 24 that Sweden, as an EU member state, agreed during negotiations with Turkey to assist Turkey in promoting Turkey’s accession to the EU in exchange. But NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said that the issues of Sweden joining NATO and Turkey joining the EU are “irrelevant”. Sweden’s Daily News quoted Paul Levine, director of the Turkey Institute at Stockholm University, as saying that Sweden’s NATO application was finally approved by the Turkish parliament. Perhaps Turkey’s hope to reach an F-16 fighter jet deal with the United States is the explanation.
Previously, the United States and Turkey had engaged in multiple rounds of games over the arms sales of F-16 fighter jets. In September last year, Turkish media reported that Turkish President Erdogan publicly stated that whether Turkey would approve Sweden’s membership of NATO depended on whether the United States would sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey as promised. According to the report, Erdogan told accompanying reporters on the plane on his way back from his trip that the United States “linked Sweden to the F-16” and “our parliament is paying close attention to every development on this matter… If they keep their promises, our parliament will We will also keep our promises.”
It is understood that as a member of NATO, Turkey previously purchased the S-400 air defense missile system from Russia, which angered the United States and NATO. The United States “kicked Turkey out” of the F-35 fighter cooperation project and refused to sell this model of fighter jet to Turkey. Erdogan said in October 2021 that the United States proposed that Turkey purchase US-made F-16 fighter jets to offset the funds Turkey has paid for the F-35 project. At that time, Turkey requested the purchase of 40 F-16 fighter jets and approximately 80 “upgrade packages” for existing fighter jets, with a total amount of US$20 billion.
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2024-01-25 07:16:21
