Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, shakes hands with Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, right, as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg looks on prior to a meeting ahead of a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, Monday, July 10, 2023. AP
Following the Turkish government’s approval of Sweden’s NATO membership this week, the Biden administration has given its approval for the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. The action is a major step toward the alliance’s growth, which has become even more crucial in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Late on Friday, the State Department informed Congress that it had approved the $23 billion sale of F-16s to Turkey and the $8.6 billion sale of F-35 fighter jets to Greece.
Shortly after Turkey deposited its “instrument of ratification” for Sweden’s NATO accession with Washington, the alliance document repository, and after a number of influential members of Congress withdrew their objections, the action was taken.
The sale to Turkey includes 40 new F-16s and equipment to modernize 79 of its existing F-16 fleet. The sale to Greece includes 40 F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters and related equipment.
NATO ally Turkey has long sought to upgrade its F-16 fleet and had made its ratification of Sweden’s membership contingent on the approval of the sale of the new planes. The Biden administration had supported the sale, but several lawmakers had expressed objections due to human rights concerns.
Those objections, including from the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, have now been overcome, officials said.
Cardin said in statement Friday that he had still had concerns about Turkey’s rights record, but had agreed to the sale based on commitments Turkey has made to improve it. “I look forward to beginning this new chapter in our relationship with Turkey, expanding the NATO alliance, and working with our global allies in standing up to ongoing Russian aggression against its peaceful neighbors,” he said.
Turkey had delayed its approval of Sweden’s NATO membership for more than a year, ostensibly because it believed Sweden did not take Turkey’s national security concerns seriously enough, including its fight against Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers to be security threats.
The delays had frustrated the U.S, and other NATO allies, almost all of whom had been swift to accept both Sweden and Finland into the alliance after the Nordic states dropped their longstanding military neutrality following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Sweden’s formal accession to NATO now depends on Hungary, which is the last remaining NATO ally not to have approved its membership. US and NATO officials have said they expect Hungary to act quickly, especially after Turkey’s decision.
(With inputs from The Associated Press)