US senators: No fighter jets for Turkey without yes to NATO expansion

WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) – A group of senators in the United States has objected to an arms deal with Turkey across party lines as long as the country blocks Sweden and Finland from joining NATO. Twenty-seven senators from both Democrats and Republicans have issued a letter calling on President Joe Biden to wait until Turkey has ratified the two countries’ bids to join the country before delivering F-16 fighter jets. Before that, Congress could not examine the sale of the fighter jets.

In May 2022, the two Nordic countries had applied to become part of the western military alliance in view of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. However, NATO member Turkey is blocking this. This is justified in particular with the fact that Sweden is not sufficiently committed against “terrorists”. Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hinted several times that Finland could be admitted. All 30 current members must ratify the motions – including Turkey.

The US Senators – including Democrats Chris Coons, Amy Klobuchar and Dick Durbin and Republicans Rick Scott and Lisa Murkowski

– warned, Sweden and Finland tried to the best of their knowledge and

conscience to meet the conditions demanded by Turkey. Despite obvious progress, however, Turkey is blocking.

Biden supported the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey at the NATO summit in Madrid last summer. At the time, he stressed that this was not in return for Ankara giving up its blockade on Finland and Sweden joining NATO. The US Congress is involved in the approval process for the sale./jac/DP/jha

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