WASHINGTON – The Biden management has licensed the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey following the Turkish government’s ratification this week of Sweden’s club in NATO. The transfer is a vital building within the growth of the alliance, which has taken on further significance since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The State Department notified Congress of its approval of the $23 billion F-16 sale to Turkey, at the side of a spouse $8.6 billion sale of complex F-35 fighter jets to Greece, past due Friday. The transfer got here simply hours after Turkey deposited its “instrument of ratification” for Sweden’s accession to NATO with Washington, which is the repository for alliance paperwork and after a number of key participants of Congress lifted their objections.
The sale to Turkey contains 40 new F-16s and kit to modernize 79 of its present F-16 fleet. The sale to Greece contains 40 F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters and comparable apparatus.
NATO best friend Turkey has lengthy sought to improve its F-16 fleet and had made its ratification of Sweden’s club contingent at the approval of the sale of the brand new planes. The Biden management had supported the sale, however a number of lawmakers had expressed objections due to human rights issues.
Those objections, together with from the chairman and score member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, have now been conquer, officers stated.
Cardin stated in commentary Friday that he had nonetheless had issues about Turkey’s rights file, however had agreed to the sale according to commitments Turkey has made to give a boost to it. “I look forward to beginning this new chapter in our relationship with Turkey, expanding the NATO alliance, and working with our global allies in standing up to ongoing Russian aggression against its peaceful neighbors,” he stated.
Turkey had behind schedule its approval of Sweden’s NATO club for greater than a yr, ostensibly as it believed Sweden didn’t take Turkey’s nationwide safety issues critically sufficient, together with its battle towards Kurdish militants and different teams that Ankara considers to be safety threats.
The delays had pissed off the U.S, and other NATO allies, virtually all of whom have been swift to settle for each Sweden and Finland into the alliance after the Nordic states dropped their longstanding army neutrality following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Sweden’s formal accession to NATO now will depend on Hungary, which is the ultimate last NATO best friend no longer to have licensed its club. US and NATO officers have stated they be expecting Hungary to act briefly, particularly after Turkey’s determination.
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