US President Biden Congratulates Erdogan on Re-Election and Discusses F-16 Deal with Sweden

“I spoke with Erdogan and congratulated him,” Biden told reporters before leaving the White House for Delaware. “And he still wants some solution on the F-16. I told him we want to deal with Sweden, so let’s finish it. So we’ll reconnect,” adding: We’ll talk more about that next week.

The approval of all NATO members is a condition for a new member to join, but Turkey and Hungary have not yet agreed to Sweden’s request.

Turkey is seeking to buy F-16 fighters worth $20 billion from the United States, but the sale has stalled due to congressional objections, despite the Biden government’s repeated saying it supports the deal.

Congress this year approved a $259 million package, including avionics software upgrades for Turkey’s existing fleet of F-16 fighter jets, days after Turkey ratified Finland’s entry into NATO.

The Biden administration has always rejected any confirmation of the existence of a “trade-off” between the deal and the expansion of NATO, although Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in January that the US side made it clear that Congress would look positively at Ankara’s approval of the expansion process.

According to a source familiar with the discussions, the United States has previously told Turkey that it would be difficult to persuade Congress to approve the F-19 deal if Ankara did not give the green light to Sweden.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO last year, abandoning long-standing policies of military non-alignment following Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

Turkey ratified Finland’s application to join the alliance in late March, but continued to object to Sweden’s accession, saying Stockholm was home to members of armed groups Turkey considers terrorists.

Sweden’s accession to the alliance by mid-July, when the alliance is due to hold a summit in Lithuania, is among Washington’s top priorities.