Clear US message on F-16 sale to Turkey

After Turkey gave the green light to Sweden’s NATO entry at the NATO Leaders’ Summit in Lithuania, statements about Turkey keep coming from the US…

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken answered questions about the delivery of F-16 jets to Turkey and their approval by the US Congress, in an interview with US television MSNBC in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, where he was for the NATO Summit.

The US Secretary of State said: “It is in the interest of the US and NATO that Turkey purchase these aircraft. This is what we do across the Alliance; “Making sure that all of its members have the technology they need to make the alliance as strong as possible.”

When Blinken was asked how to overcome objections made by both wings of Congress regarding the sale of F-16s to Turkey, he said: “These have always been separate issues for us. The process of getting Sweden into NATO continues with Turkey’s acceptance of progress. At the same time, it is the policy of this administration that Turkey has modernized the F-16s.

“IT IS IMPORTANT FOR Türkiye TO HAVE THIS TECHNOLOGY”

Emphasizing that Turkey is a NATO ally, Blinken added: “It is important that all of NATO works together and that Turkey has this technology.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on May 30 that the Joe Biden administration did not link the sale of F-16s to Turkey to Sweden’s NATO membership, and that this sale also redounded to interest of the United States.

Blinken claimed that some members of Congress attributed Sweden’s NATO entry to progress on the F-16s, that Congress was “a completely equal and independent government body,” but that in his view, progress must be made as soon as possible. possible in both problems. (AA)