United States Gov Agrees to Sell Turkey Fighter Planes After Turkey Allows Sweden to Join NATO
Jose Nino
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The Biden regime recently told United States elected officials that it plans to sell Turkey $23 billion worth of F-16 fighter jets after Turkey formally approved Sweden’s application to join the NATO military alliance.
The US Department of State informed Congress that it had plans of approving Turkey’s request to purchase 40 F-16s, per an announcement made late on January 26, 2024 by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The US government also plans to sell Turkey kits to modernize 79 current F-16 jets as part of this deal.
The US government’s approval of the weapons deal, which Turkey first put forward over two years ago, is expected to end internal drama between NATO member states over the question of Sweden’s acceptance into the alliance.
“These new and refurbished aircraft will provide Turkey with a fleet of modernized multi-role combat aircraft to enable it to provide for the defense of its airspace, contribute to Nato missions to preserve regional security and defend Nato Allies,” DSCA declared.
The Biden regime had connected its approval of Turkey’s purchases to the country signing off on Sweden’s NATO application, although Turkish authorities stressed the US had to green light the arms deal as a condition for carrying out Sweden’s request. On top of pushing the US to approve its F-16 purchases, Turkey wanted several concessions from Sweden connected to security.
On January 25, 2024, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan approved Sweden’s accession to NATO.
The move leaves Hungary as the only NATO member state that has yet to approve Sweden’s NATO bid. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently indicated that the Hungarian government was committed to ratifying Sweden’s bid to join NATO, but he also extended an invitation to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to come to Budapest to “negotiate”.
Ben Cardin, chair of the powerful Senate foreign relations committee, said on January 26 that his approval of Turkey’s F-16 deal had been “contingent on Turkish approval of Sweden’s Nato membership”.
Sweden’s accession into NATO is of great importance to the Collective West because it represents a consolation prize for an otherwise bungled proxy war being waged against Russia in Ukraine.
In effect, Sweden, like its neighbor Finland, will serve as another sacrificial lamb for the NATO agenda as the military alliance regroups and prepares for future saber-rattling.
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