US Links F-16 Sale To Turkey With Sweden’s NATO Bid Approval
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Raven Ruma
- . January 25, 2024
- . Update: January 25, 2024 12:30 pm
US President Joe Biden has asked the United States Congress to quickly agree to sell F-16 fighter planes to Turkey. This request comes right after Turkey agreed to support Sweden NATO membership. The deal to sell these planes is worth about $20 billion.
Biden sent a letter to the leaders of important committees in the Senate and the House of Representatives. He wants them to approve this sale without waiting. The White House also sent a letter to Congress members, pushing for the approval.
The decision to sell the F-16 planes is linked to a big agreement. US President Biden said that he would agree to the plane deal only if Turkey allowed Sweden to join NATO. The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also had this condition.
Recently, Turkey’s parliament said ‘yes’ to Sweden joining NATO. This was a big step in expanding the NATO military group. Before this, there were delays for about 20 months. Hungary is now the only country left to agree to Sweden joining NATO.
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Congress in the US was waiting for Turkey to agree to Sweden’s NATO membership before they would think about selling the F-16 planes. They needed President Erdogan of Turkey to sign off on this first.
Now, the US State Department is telling Turkey to finish the process of allowing Sweden into NATO. This means President Erdogan needs to sign some papers and send them to Washington. The State Department didn’t say exactly when they will tell Congress about the F-16 sale.
Turkey wants these F-16 planes to replace older jets and improve their current fleet. They are also working on making their own warplanes.Sweden decided to join NATO after Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022. This move is seen as a way to strengthen security in Europe and NATO members.
