WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd February, 2023) A group of senators led by Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Thom Tillis urged President Joe Biden in a bipartisan joint letter on Thursday to delay selling F-16 fighter jets to Turkey until President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stops blocking the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO.
"Congress cannot consider future support for Türkiye, including the sale of F-16 fighter jets, until Türkiye (Turkey) completes ratification of the accession protocols," the letter said.
In 2022, Sweden and Finland submitted their formal requests to join NATO, which was followed by a formal invitation to join the alliance on July 5. Since then, 28 out of the 30 NATO member nations including the United States have ratified the accession protocols for both countries.
"Once the NATO accession protocols are ratified by Türkiye, Congress can consider the sale of F-16 fighter jets. A failure to do so, however, would call into question this pending sale," the senators wrote.
The senators also urged the president to continue to engage with the US ambassador to Turkey, the US Mission to NATO and with US allies, including Sweden and Finland, to encourage Turkey to act swiftly on the two nations' accession protocols, the letter said.
Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told CNN that if Congress chose to make the Nordics' accession to NATO a precondition for weapons sale, Turkey would not "budge to that" because it sees them as separate issues.
"They can wait for a long time because we are not tying the two together... It's their problem, rather than ours. We have our own air power, our military," the official said in a video link-up.
Kalin argued that Turkey was "not without any options" when it came to air defenses. It has been building out its own defense capabilities and US defense contractors will find themselves on the losing end if the US scales back military cooperation with Turkey, he warned.
