Turkey’s parliament will keep its promise to ratify Sweden’s NATO bid if U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration paves the way for F-16 jet sales to Ankara, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday, according to Turkish media.
Speaking to reporters on his flight back from Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhchivan, Erdogan said that Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed Sweden’s NATO membership bid last week in New York.
The U.S. administration is linking F-16 fighter jet sales to Turkey with Ankara’s ratification of Sweden’s bid, Erdogan said.
“If they (the U.S.) keep their promises, our parliament will keep its own promise as well. Turkish parliament will have the final say on Sweden’s NATO membership,” he said.
This has to be politically painful to Türkiye. Years ago they were on track to actually manufacture F-35 jet parts as well has supply their airforce with F-35 jets. Instead Türkiye wanted to buy Russian S400 air defense systems and did so. So they lost the factory, lost the chance to own F-35 jets and are stuck with S400 systems which may be increasingly harder to get parts, service, and ammo for.
And, based on recent events in Crimea, may be of limited effectiveness in any future conflict.