The Biden administration made it clear to Turkey that the ratification of Finland and Sweden would facilitate the purchase of American fighter jets, NATO special reporter Mika Hentunen writes.
WASHINGTON The foreign ministers of US allied countries, including Finland, visit Washington several times a year.
Turkey is an exception. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu visited Washington on Wednesday for the first time as Secretary of State. He has been in his position for almost eight years.
This says a lot about the relations between the two large NATO countries.
Çavuşoğlu and the US Secretary of State by Antony Blinken the meeting was short. After the meeting, the ministers did not reveal exactly what they discussed behind closed doors – or what they might have agreed upon.
Key questions remained unanswered.
Turkey wants to buy 40 F-16 fighter jets from the United States. President Joe Biden the administration has applied to Congress for approval for a deal worth about 20 billion euros.
It is more than twice the size of Finland’s F-35 fighter jet purchase and would bring the high-tech jobs promised by Biden to the United States.
After the meeting, there was no information about the approval of Congress.
The US removed Turkey from its F-35 program in 2019 after Turkey bought the S 400 missile defense system from Russia. The US has also demanded guarantees from Turkey that it will not use American weapons against the Kurds.
There is principled opposition in Congress to selling anything to Turkey. Opponents are in the minority, but the chairman of the foreign affairs committee is among them By Bob Menendez influential politicians like
– Turkey’s repeated attacks against our Kurdish allies in Syria, continued fraternization with Russia, and the prolongation of Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership are serious concerns. As I’ve said before, Turkey needs the F-16 fighter jets to provide assurances that these concerns will go away, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement.
Çavuşoğlu told Turkish media that Turkey does not accept pressure in connection with fighter jet deals.
However, he admitted that Blinken had implied that Turkey would “facilitate the creation of trade” by ratifying Finland and Sweden as NATO members.
Çavuşoğlu returns from his first visit to Washington empty-handed. There was no certainty about fighter jet deals and the hosts did not seem particularly interested in Turkey’s terrorism concerns.
Instead, they apparently taught the Turks a lesson about fraternizing with Russia.
In Finnish, this means that Finland’s NATO membership did not move forward at least.