U.S. President Joe Biden indicated on Monday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the issue of the possibility of the United States selling F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. Biden also requested Turkey's approval for Sweden to join NATO. Biden congratulated Erdogan by phone after his victory in the Turkish elections, saying, "We will talk more about that next week."
For its part, the Turkish presidency stated in a statement about the phone call between Erdogan and Biden that the two leaders agreed to deepen cooperation in all aspects of their bilateral relations, which they described as having gained more importance in light of regional and global challenges. Turkey is seeking to purchase F-16 fighter jets worth $20 billion from the United States, but the sale has stalled due to objections from Congress despite the Biden administration's repeated support for the deal.
Congress's hesitance regarding the deal stems from its objection to Ankara's human rights record and its policy towards Syria. However, Congress approved a much smaller package worth $259 million this year, which includes upgrades to the avionics of Turkey’s current fleet of F-16s, just days after Turkey ratified Finland's accession to NATO. The Biden administration has consistently rejected any confirmation of a "trade-off" between the deal and NATO expansion, although Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu stated in January that the U.S. side indicated that Congress would view Ankara's approval of the expansion favorably.
A source familiar with the discussions said the United States had previously notified Turkey that it would be difficult to convince Congress to approve the F-19 jet deal if Ankara did not greenlight Sweden. Sweden and Finland submitted their applications to join NATO last year, abandoning long-held military non-alignment policies following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Approval from all NATO members is a prerequisite for a new member's accession, and both Turkey and Hungary have yet to approve Sweden's application.
