According to the Wall Street Journal, the F-16 fighters would be sold if Turkey accepts the membership of Finland and Sweden in the military alliance NATO. Turkey’s foreign minister will visit Washington next week.
The Wall Street Journal tells about it (you go to another service) citing unnamed government sources. According to the newspaper, the condition of the sale would be Turkey’s “acquiescence” in the NATO matter.
Turkey has not accepted the membership progress of Finland and Sweden. The main justification it has given is that it is dissatisfied with Sweden’s attitude towards the Kurds.
In addition, the United States has pressured Turkey to participate more strongly in sanctions against Russia because of the war in Ukraine.
The US Congress has been considering arms sales to Turkey for over a year. The deal would involve a total of 40 fighter jets and, in addition, a large number of missiles and other supplies. The value of the deal would be around 20 billion dollars, or 18.4 billion euros.
It would be one of the largest arms sales in the United States in recent years.
At the same time, the sale of 30 F-35 fighters to Greece is pending. Relations between Greece and Turkey are known to be tense.
For the sake of comparison, it should be mentioned that the price of Finland’s F-35 fighter jet purchases is said to be around 8 billion euros.
Arms sales to Turkey have been criticized in the past
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is scheduled to visit Washington, USA next week.
The United States has previously implied that the sale of fighter jets would not be related to Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Congress has never succeeded in blocking arms deals proposed by the country’s administration. On the other hand, according to the newspaper, it is possible that the sale of weapons to Turkey may come under criticism.
At least a Democratic senator Bob Menendez has previously opposed selling fighter jets to Turkey because of its human rights record.
Congress has a month to take a position on the proposal. If you want to prevent the sale, a joint negative position must be presented. Congress can also block or modify the deal with a separate law at any point before the delivery of the weapons system, according to the Wall Street Journal.