ISTANBUL (Reuters) -The U.S. ambassador to Turkey said he anticipates that President Tayyip Erdogan will give a final sign-off on Sweden’s NATO membership within days, triggering rapid steps toward U.S. Congress endorsing a sale of F-16 fighter jets to Ankara.

In an interview on Thursday, Ambassador Jeff Flake said that once the formal ratification document is received in Washington, the U.S. State Department will immediately send Congress notification of the $20 billion F-16s sale.

Turkey’s parliament ratified Sweden’s NATO membership bid on Tuesday, clearing a major hurdle to expanding the Western military alliance after 20 months of delay.

  • @Plopp
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    310 months ago

    Just to stop misinformation, while Sweden did make some awful concessions to Turkey, the PKK has been listed as a terrorist organisation in Sweden since 1984. Sweden was the first country to do so after Turkey.

      • @Plopp
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        410 months ago

        Yes, they were mad about both YPG and PKK, for different reasons. People demonstrated in Stockholm with PKK flags and Erdogan was baffled and mad that we didn’t throw them in jail or deport them to Turkey.