Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will meet his American official brother Antony Blinken in Washington today.
According to media reports, the US administration would be ready to sell Turkey the F-16 fighter jets it needs. One of the goals of the deal would be to persuade Turkey to ratify the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO. The deals will reportedly be discussed at a meeting between the US and Turkish foreign ministers today.
The experts who visited in the morning warn that the ratification may still have many hurdles behind it, even if the fighter jet deals go through. A lot depends on what kind of position the president has With Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is domestically next summer.
– The elections are either in June or even possibly already in May. It must be understood that in practice Erdoğan and a few people around him participate in Turkey’s foreign policy decision-making, says a senior researcher Toni Alaranta From the Foreign Policy Institute.
Ratification is a significant issue for the United States, but Turkey’s agenda also includes US armed support for the Kurdish fighters of the YPG organization in Syria.
– This is probably the big picture they are aiming for and why they are here [Nato-ratifiointia] used as a card, says Alaranta.
If the fighter jet deals are successful and Erdoğan secures his position in the elections, according to Alaranta’s assessment, he may no longer have reason to depend on Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership.
NATO membership has yet to be confirmed in Hungary as well
Also a Hungarian expert, researcher following the ratification process Katalin Miklóssy The University of Helsinki’s Aleksanteri Institute is full of hope.
– I believe that America and the shops are just one small point in the overall picture. You should also remember what will happen, for example, in a month from now in a war or an international situation. Everything depends on everything, says Miklóssy.
The sale of fighter jets to Turkey requires the approval of the US Congress. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu however, has said that he is confident that the deal will be completed.
In addition to Turkey, the membership of Finland and Sweden has not been ratified by the Hungarian Parliament. Hungary has promised to take care of the matter in February. However, the date of ratification has already been moved several times, Miklóssy reminds.
– For Hungary, Turkey is an extremely important partner. [Unkarissa] let’s see if Turkey will come along little by little or not. But [Unkarin ratifiointi] does not depend solely on Turkey. It also includes a Russia card.
According to Miklóssy, Hungary is trying to maintain as good relations as possible with Russia, and the country has held back NATO’s eastward expansion.
You can discuss the topic on 19.1. until 11 p.m.