On Monday, May 29, US President Joe Biden held a telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, congratulated him on his victory in the presidential election and invited the Turkish leader to support Sweden's entry into NATO in exchange for new F-16s. It is reported by Reuters.
Biden told reporters that Erdogan during the conversation expressed Ankara's desire to buy F-16 fighters from the United States. The American president replied that Washington wants Ankara to drop its objections to Sweden's entry into NATO:
“I spoke with Erdogan. I congratulated Erdogan. He still wants to work on F-16s. I told him that we want to negotiate with Sweden, so let's do it. So we'll keep in touch with each other."
At the same time, Biden clarified that he was going to talk about this with Erdogan in more detail next week.
The Biden administration has repeatedly dismissed any "quid pro quo" claims in the fighter jet sales and NATO expansion story. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in January that the American side had made it clear that the approval of applications to NATO would be positively regarded by Congress.
Turkey has previously expressed a desire to purchase $20 billion worth of F-16 jets and upgrade kits from the US. The deal was frozen after objections from the US Congress due to Ankara's refusal to allow NATO expansion, as well as Turkey's human rights and political situation in Syria. At the same time, the Biden administration has repeatedly stated that it supports the sale of the F-16.
Finland, along with Sweden, applied to join NATO after the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. On April 4, Finland officially became the 31st member of the North Atlantic Alliance, while Sweden's entry into NATO is hindered by Turkey, which demands the extradition of Kurdish refugees and Turkish opposition from Stockholm. In addition, the Turkish authorities, in order not to support the application of Sweden, use the story of the burning of the Koran (on January 21, the leader of the Danish ultra-right politician Rasmus Paludan burned the Koran at the Turkish embassy in Stockholm).