According to the chairman of the defense committee of the US House of Representatives, Turkey can reject Finland’s and Sweden’s membership in NATO completely if it does not receive sufficient concessions.
Chairman of the Defense Committee of the United States House of Representatives Adam Smith rate Breaking Defense (moving to another service) according to the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan may reject the membership of Finland and Sweden completely if it does not consider that it has received sufficiently good conditions for its country.
– We, Finland and Sweden, now only have to negotiate a better outcome, the publication says Smith said at an event of the Defense Journalists’ Association.
The committee, led by Democrat Smith, is in charge of U.S. Department of Defense affairs and military funding and oversight.
According to its own statement, Turkey is a stopper for Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership because the countries are protecting terrorists. Finland and Sweden have both denied this. Turkey also wants the arms embargoes imposed by both countries to be lifted.
The real reason for Turkey’s slowdown is thought to be that Turkey is using Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO applications as a lever to get something else it wants.
It could be one of the F-35 fighters.
The United States closed Turkey out of its F-35 fighter program three years ago. Turkey was due to buy up to a hundred F-35 multi-purpose fighters, but the United States closed its doors when Turkey bought the S-400 missile defense system from Russia.
However, the fighters are not the kind of carrot for the United States that it would agree to wave to Turkey.
– Turkey will not return to the F-35 program, says Breaking Defense Smith said.
According to Smith, excluding Turkey from the fighter program was not a punishment for acquiring a Russian weapons system.
– The point is that the S-400 and F-35 cannot be in the same place. Russia could then take possession of critical information, Smith said.
Breaking Defense says the United States has to offer other fats in the negotiating cart.
– I would think that in the end we will end up with some kind of weapon system in Turkey, Breaking Defense says.