US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that he supports the United States selling upgraded F-16 fighter jets to Turkey as well as the modernization packages for Turkey's existing fleet of these aircraft
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd March, 2023) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that he supports the United States selling upgraded F-16 fighter jets to Turkey as well as the modernization packages for Turkey's existing fleet of these aircraft.
"We believe that Turkey should get the upgraded F-16 and the modernization package for the existing F-16. We think it's important to NATO, important to the Alliance," Blinken told the US House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Earlier in March, a bipartisan group of senators urged President Joe Biden to delay a $20 billion sale of F-16 jets until Turkey ratified the entry of Sweden and Finland in NATO. The State Department said in February that it supported the deal but that Congress had to also be on board.
The United States and Turkey have been at odds over Ankara's purchase of Russian air defense weapons that prompted Washington to remove its NATO ally from the joint program to build the fifth-generation F-35 fighter jet in 2021. Turkey suggested buying 40 fourth-generation F-16 jets as a replacement but the talks have dragged on.
