The F-16 action comes after Turkey’s parliament approved Sweden’s accession into NATO on Tuesday and amid signs Turkey and its fellow NATO ally Greece were repairing ties.
The package would be the second major military sale to Turkey that Congress has approved in recent months. In April, Washington signed off on a $259 million package of avionics software upgrades for Turkey’s existing F-16 fleet.
Senate Foreign Relations Chair Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said in a statement Friday that he would permit the sale after Ankara approved Sweden’s membership bid.
Cardin, who is among lawmakers with misgivings over other issues related to Turkey, said he wants Turkey to make progress on human rights, take a stronger stance against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and tamp down its rhetoric in the Middle East.
“My concerns have been strongly and consistently conveyed to the Biden administration as part of our ongoing engagement, and I am encouraged by the productive direction of their discussions with Turkish officials to address these issues,” Cardin said in a statement.
“I look forward to beginning this new chapter in our relationship with Turkey, expanding the NATO alliance, and working with our global allies in standing up to ongoing Russian aggression against its peaceful neighbors,” he added.
The top four leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs panels must sign off on foreign arms sales presented to Congress, giving the top Democrats and Republicans on those committees an effective veto over Biden’s designs on selling U.S.-made fighters to Turkey.
Cardin’s move is
a pivot from his predecessor atop the Foreign Relations Committee. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who relinquished the committee gavel after he was indicted on federal corruption charges, was a staunch opponent of selling U.S.-made jets to Ankara.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s stalling of Sweden’s accession to the NATO alliance is far from the only grievance that held up the deal. Turkey’s spotty human rights record, incursions into Greek airspace and purchase of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system had increased tensions with the U.S.
The sale of F-16s also comes after the U.S. booted Turkey from the program for the more advanced F-35 fighter, also built by Lockheed Martin.
A fire has broken out at a girls’ school in central Kenya just two days after a boarding school inferno… Read More
The daughter of a French woman who was allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted repeatedly by her husband and dozens of… Read More
Gildardo Lopez Astudillo’s arrest comes weeks before the 10th anniversary of the students’ disappearance.Authorities in Mexico say they have arrested… Read More
Hamas releases heartbreaking video of slain Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, family calls it a 'wake-up call to the world' New York Post… Read More
With two months to go before the US presidential election, the candidates are outlining their vision for the world’s biggest… Read More
Spanish couples take their newly adopted Chinese children for a walk in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, March 7, 2007. Greg Baker/AP… Read More
This website uses cookies.