ANKARA: Turkiye is likely to approve Sweden’s NATO membership bid if the United States keeps its promise regarding the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Ankara, Sputnik quoted Turkish newspaper Hurriyet report on Monday.
In early December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the US was sending F-16s to Greece but was not supplying them to Turkiye, despite the fact that Ankara had already paid for them.
The delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Ankara is complicated not by its stance on Sweden’s application, but by the lack of trust on the part of Washington, Hurriyet reported. If this trust is established, Sweden’s path to the alliance will become clear, the report said.
In April 2021, the United States excluded Turkiye from the F-35 programme after Ankara purchased Russia’s S-400 air defence systems. Erdogan said later that year that Washington had offered that Ankara buy F-16 jets instead, one generation behind the F-35s.
However, the deal needs approval from the US Congress, with many lawmakers strongly opposing the initiative, in particular, due to Turkiye’s position on Sweden’s NATO bid. In July 2022, the US House of Representatives adopted a defence budget amendment that prohibits the sale of F-16s to Turkiye as long as Turkiye violates Greece’s airspace.
Sweden, along with Finland, submitted its NATO application in May 2022, several months after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine. Finland became a member of the alliance in April 2023. Apart from Turkiye, Sweden’s application is still pending ratification by Hungary.–Bernama-Sputnik
