Six members of the US Congress have sent a letter to the US State Department asking the administration to ensure that oversight mechanisms are included in any final agreement to sell F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits to Turkey to ensure that the country does not use the jets against the interests of the United States and NATO.
The letter, dated July 8, was sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and signed by Congressmen Chris Pappas, Gus M. Bilirakis, Frank Palone, John P. Sarbanes, Dina Titus and Nicole Malliotakis.
The US congressmen said clear mechanisms of accountability must be included in any F-16 deal made with Turkey.
“If an agreement for the sale of F-16s and modernization kits to Turkey is under consideration, we strongly urge that any final agreement must include mechanisms that provide for the pause, delay, or snapback of the transfer of such weapons if Turkey engages in actions that threaten or undermine U.S. national security interests and the unity of the NATO alliance,” the congressmen said. Talk of the sale of F-16 jets to Turkey, which has so far remained in limbo due to opposition from some US senators because Turkey was hindering Sweden’s bid to join NATO, was revived after Turkey gave a green light to Sweden’s entry to the alliance following a meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius one day before the start of a NATO summit there on July 11.
“As it becomes increasingly clear the Administration is using every tool at its disposal to pressure Congress and relevant stakeholders into approving the sale of F-16s and kits to Turkey, it is imperative that any agreement must safeguard greater NATO security interests, and not merely the accession of Sweden,” said the letter, which was written before Turkey gave a green light to Sweden’s NATO entry.
According to the six representatives, Turkey’s belligerence in the region – which threatens the very “stability in the Aegean” — must end for the US to responsibly transfer new weapons to Ankara.
“There must be guarantees that preclude American weapons being used to provoke a conflict within NATO. Given Turkey’s history of using American F-16s for overflights in the Aegean and to challenge Greek sovereignty, we request mechanisms that provide for the pause, delay, or snapback of the transfer of American weapons to Turkey if it resumes its destabilizing actions in the Eastern Mediterranean that threaten or undermine U.S. national security interests or NATO security architecture.”
Following Turkey’s U-turn on Sweden’s NATO bid, several US officials including President Joe Biden expressed the willingness of the US administration to sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey if it gets approval from the US Senate.
“The administration has an obligation to ensure that US-supplied F-16s are not used to undermine US national security interests, stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and the NATO alliance. Therefore, if an agreement to sell F-16s and modernization kits to Turkey is being considered, any agreement must include clear and meaningful mechanisms to stop, delay, or withdraw the transfer of such weapons if Turkey engages in actions that threaten or undermine US national security interests and the unity of the NATO alliance,” said the US Congressmen in their letter.
Turkey in October 2021 sought to buy 40 Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16 fighter jets and some 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes. Technical talks between the two sides have been concluded.
Turkey had been blocking Sweden’s membership bid, accusing Stockholm of harboring Kurdish activists and political dissidents Ankara regards as terrorists.
Sweden and Finland ended decades of neutrality and applied to join NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but Turkey objected and accused the countries of harboring “terrorists” and demanded steps be taken. Finland joined NATO in April.