US President Joe Biden at a press briefing in the Rose Garden of the White House. © Susan Walsh/AP/dpa
Is the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey a quid pro quo in terms of NATO's northern expansion? The White House clearly rejects this interpretation.
According to the U.S. government, the delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey does not constitute a quid pro quo for Ankara's consent to Sweden's accession to NATO. "This is not a condition," White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said yesterday.
US President Joe Biden has been making it clear for some time that he supports the sale of F-16 fighter jets. Jean-Pierre said that the sale of the fighter jets to Turkey simplifies cooperation in the defense alliance. Biden spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after his re-election and also expressed "his strong desire" that Turkey approve Sweden's application to join NATO as soon as possible.
Biden gave a different impression
In the past, the U.S. government has repeatedly emphasized that it supports Erdogan's desire to modernize the fleet of F-16 fighter jets. At the same time, Biden regularly emphasized that this was not a quid pro quo for Erdogan's support for NATO's northward expansion.
On Monday evening, however, Biden had given the impression that these two issues belonged together. Biden said: "I spoke with Erdogan and congratulated him. And he still wants to work on a solution for the F-16. I told him that we wanted an agreement with Sweden. So let's get this done."
There have long been discussions about the sale of U.S. fighter jets to Turkey: Actually, the NATO country was part of a program to develop the U.S. F-35 fighter jet and was supposed to purchase it. However, after the government in Ankara acquired the Russian S-2017 missile defense system in 400, the US government excluded Turkey from the program. In Washington, there were fears that Russia could obtain data on the stealth capabilities of the F-400 jets via the sensitive radar of the S-35 weapon system. Dpa
