Negotiations between Ankara and Washington on the F-16 fighter jet deal are “going nicely regardless of challenges, based on Turkey’s high diplomat.
International Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu’s remarks on Wednesday come days after the U.S. Home of Representatives accredited a invoice creating a brand new hurdle to any Turkish buy.
Turkey has sought to purchase 40 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits from the US. President Joe Biden has mentioned he helps the sale, and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has mentioned he believes it’s going to undergo after talks with Biden.
“The F-16 negotiations are going nicely. The (U.S.) administration’s strategy on negotiations may be very optimistic,” Çavuşoğlu mentioned in a televised interview.
The Home accredited laws that might bar the sale to Ankara until the administration certifies that doing so is important to U.S. nationwide safety. It additionally features a description of concrete steps taken to make sure they don’t seem to be used for “unauthorized overflights” of Greece.
Ankara rejected the invoice, saying it isn’t binding. It known as on its NATO ally to not fall for the “sport” being performed by sure U.S. lawmakers towards the potential sale of F-16 jets.
Erdoğan final week mentioned Biden had not set out any circumstances for the sale when the 2 met on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Madrid final month.
Protection Minister Hulusi Akar additionally mentioned talks on the sale have been ongoing and Ankara is intently monitoring the method.
The invoice marks the newest effort by the Home, identified for its anti-Ankara stance that has repeatedly broken bilateral relations, to exert management over the sale of the Lockheed Martin plane to Turkey.
Çavuşoğlu additionally confused that the “destructive environment” seen on the U.S. Congress lately has dissipated.
“This (bilateral) cooperation additionally has strategic significance for NATO,” he mentioned, as each nations have been alliance members for a lot of a long time.
“They’re additionally conscious of the function Turkey has taken on not too long ago, and let’s hope this consciousness just isn’t a short lived one.”
The method to finalize the protection invoice, generally known as NDAA, is prolonged, and the Senate can even should again related language earlier than it may be despatched to Biden’s desk to be signed into regulation. Revisions to the invoice in its present type are all however sure. The president can veto such laws.
The decades-old partnership between the NATO allies has gone by way of unprecedented tumult up to now 5 years over disagreements on many points, together with Syria and Ankara’s nearer ties with Moscow.
Turkey made a request to purchase 40 Lockheed Martin-made F-16 fighters and practically 80 modernization kits for its current warplanes, in what’s estimated to be a $6 billion (TL 107.5 billion) deal.
The sale of U.S. weapons to Turkey turned contentious after Ankara acquired Russian-made S-400 protection missile methods, triggering U.S. sanctions in addition to Turkey’s removing from the F-35 fighter jet program.
The Biden administration has on a number of events signaled its openness to the sale, together with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has mentioned international navy gross sales to key U.S. companions like Turkey must be expedited and bureaucratic hurdles eliminated.
In March, the State Division wrote a letter to some members of Congress who had opposed the sale, saying “applicable” U.S. protection commerce ties with Turkey would serve U.S. pursuits.
