Turkey-USA Strategic System II. Within the scope of the Ministerial Meeting, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met with his US counterpart, Foreign Minister Antony Blinken in the capital city of the USA, and held a press conference with Turkish press members in Washington after the meeting.
Noting that they discussed Turkey’s demand for the F-16 modernization kit and the new F-16 purchase in detail with Blinken, Çavuşoğlu said, “Turkey’s F-16 request is not related to Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership, and the US Congress did not show them in contact. We say it is necessary”.
Çavuşoğlu said that if the US administration stands firm, the opposition of the US Congress on the F-16 can be overcome, and since Turkey is a paid NATO partner, the approval of the Congress would make sense.
Different voices in Congress
Although the US Leader Joe Biden wants to move forward with the sale of the F-16 to Turkey, there are voices in the US Congress to block the sale. Lastly, Senator Bob Menendez stated that they would block the sale without freeing political prisoners and improving human rights in Turkey.
Evaluating the Çavuşoğlu-Blinken meeting, US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price stated that they would continue to be in contact with Turkey while accepting the objections of the members of Congress, and drew attention to Turkey’s “constructive” mediation role in the middle of Russia-Ukraine.
