Filenews 29 June 2022
A few hours after Turkey's agreement to join NATO for Finland and Sweden, and while a senior White House official had previously signalled that the US "offered no quid pro quo" to Ankara, news from across the Atlantic shows that Erdogan probably managed to agree with the US for supply to him of the F-16s, an issue that has been a thorn in the relations between the two countries for many years.
Celeste Wallander, the US assistant secretary of defence, appeared to publicly state that "the U.S. fully supports the plans to modernize Turkey's F-16 fleet."
"These plans are in the works and must be implemented through the procurement process, but the US supports the modernization of Turkey's fleet of fighters, because this contributes to NATO's security ... Turkey's strong defence capabilities contribute to a strong NATO defence," Wallander continued.
However, it is worth pointing out that the promise that the Biden administration seems to have made to Erdogan must go through the relevant congressional committees to be implemented. This may find an obstacle in the way of the powerful Senator Robert Menendez who has expressed at every opportunity his vertical disagreement with such an eventuality.
What Bloomberg reports
In a Bloomberg report, it says US President Joe Biden and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will discuss later today the sale of dozens of new F-16 fighter jets to modernize the Turkish fleet on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
"The meeting of the two on Wednesday in Madrid comes after Erdogan threw his opposition to Sweden and Finland's offers to join NATO, bringing the alliance one step closer to strengthening its eastern front with Russia. This move appears to have won U.S. support to strengthen Turkey's air force, the second-largest military force in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization," Bloomberg also reports.
