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Erdoğan says waiting for US decision on F-16s after approving Sweden’s NATO bid

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said he expects the United States to make a decision about the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey after he signed into law a protocol for Sweden’s entry into NATO, according to the Presidential Communications Directorate.

Erdoğan signed the protocol on Thursday night, two days after the Turkish parliament approved Sweden’s NATO membership bid.

Erdoğan’s signing off on the relevant documents means that Turkey has completed all its required steps, ending a nearly two-year saga that tested Ankara’s relations with its Western allies.

“We are waiting for the US decision that will facilitate the delivery of new F-16s to Turkey as well as the upgrading of our existing fleet,” Erdoğan told reporters following Friday prayers in İstanbul, adding that Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is monitoring the situation.

Erdoğan had linked Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s accession to the security organization to the sale of F-16s, which had been pending, although US officials tried to treat the issues separately.

Turkey in October 2021 sought to buy 40 Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16 fighter jets and 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes. Technical talks between the two sides have been concluded, but the sale has not taken place due to objections from some US lawmakers who had concerns about Turkey’s “belligerence” in the region.

Following the vote in the Turkish parliament on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden sent a letter to four senior members of the US Congress urging them to quickly approve a $20 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing US officials.

Turkey’s aging air force has suffered from Ankara’s expulsion from the US-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program in 2019 in response to Erdoğan’s decision to acquire an advanced Russian missile defense system that NATO viewed as an operational security threat.

Stoltenberg thanks Erdoğan

Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg offered his thanks to Erdoğan for quickly signing Sweden’s membership protocol.

“I welcome this week’s vote by the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership. And I thank President Erdogan for his swift signature of the decision,” Stoltenberg said at a news conference at the NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Turkey’s green light leaves Hungary as the last holdout in an accession process that Sweden and Finland, which had observed decades of military non-alignment, began in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.

Finland became the 31st member of the alliance last April.

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