An F-16 Fighting Falcon of the Turkish Air Force (T?rk Hava Kuvvetleri) takes off on a sortie from Third Air Force Base Konya, Turkey during Exercise Anatolian Eagle. Image: Wikimedia Commons
New Delhi: Accusing the President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan of ‘undermining international law’, a key senate member has vowed to block the Biden administration’s plan to proceed with a $20 billion F-16 deal with Turkiye.
In October 2021 Turkiye asked the United States to buy 40 new F-16 fighter jets and 80 modernisation kits for its existing fleet. The State Department, according to a Reuters report, on 12 January informed the Senate and House committees that it intended to proceed with the proposed deal.
However, Senator Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has objected to the Biden administration’s decision to go forward with the deal.
Menendez has been a long outspoken critic of the deal.
“As I have repeatedly made clear, I strongly oppose the Biden administration’s proposed sale of new F-16 aircraft to Turkiye”, he said in a statement released after the State Department expressed its intention to push through the deal.
He accused Erdogan of “disregarding human rights and engaging in alarming and destabilising behaviour in Turkiye and against neighbouring NATO allies”– a reference to the Turkish president’s threatening speeches against Greece recently.
As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Menendez is an influential voice on arms sales and could try to push through a resolution condemning the deal with Turkiye.
Leverage against Turkiye
Sweden and Finland, both of which either share a border with Russia or have close geographical proximity with it, have increasingly become alarmed about their defence after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The two Nordic states have applied for NATO membership, but so far Hungary and Turkiye haven’t ratified their accession to the security bloc. To join NATO they need all the existing members to ratify their accession. While Hungary has said that it will ratify the recession in February, Turkiye has not yet set a date for approval.
The US is expecting to use the f-16 deal as leverage to make Turkiye approve Sweden and accession Finland’s bid. Reportedly, Congress won’t give the deal the green light until Turkey agrees to accept the Nordic states into NATO.
Turkiye, earlier in 2019, was disqualified by the US to buy its latest fighter jet, the F-35, after it bought the S-400 air defence systems from Russia.
Turkiye’s rival and neighbour Greece is also trying to acquire the F-35 jets.
With inputs from agencies
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