U.S. Clears Path for F-16 Sales to Turkey Amid NATO Expansion

VILNIUS, Lithuania—The Biden administration said it intends to move forward with the long-promised sale of F-16 jet fighters to Turkey, hours after that country’s president withdrew his objections to extending membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to Sweden. 

National-security adviser Jake Sullivan rejected suggestions that advancing the sale to Ankara was directly linked to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to let Stockholm into the alliance, saying there was no such quid quo pro. 

“President Biden has been clear for months that he supports the transfer of F-16s to Turkey, that this is in our national interest and the interest of NATO,” Sullivan told reporters on the sidelines of the annual NATO leaders’ summit here. “He’s placed no caveats or conditions on that.”

But U.S. officials said the jets factored in the negotiations. Biden administration officials had planned to use the potential arms sale to prod Erdogan over his opposition to Sweden’s membership, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. The deal also makes the sale of F-16s an easier sell in Congress, where leaders have so far blocked the transfer of the jets in protest at Turkey’s objections to Sweden’s accession. 

The NATO expansion agreement also means the alliance could enter its annual summit here Tuesday, having ironed out one of its most significant disputes, projecting unity in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine. 

In the run-up, senior Biden administration officials were in frequent touch with Erdogan’s top advisers. During a nearly hourlong call on Sunday, Biden raised the issue of F-16s directly with the Turkish president, according to U.S. officials, and made clear to Erdogan the case for Sweden’s NATO membership.

Both Washington and Ankara have for years viewed the F-16 deal as a way to repair their battered defense relationship but congressional leaders have proved a roadblock saying they wouldn’t approve it until Turkey accepted Sweden into the alliance.

Congress has the authority to pass legislation that would block or modify a sale until the jets are delivered. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez said Friday that he was discussing the potential sale of the jets to Turkey, signaling a potential reversal of his longstanding opposition to the idea. 

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, a leading figure in negotiations to grant Sweden’s admission, played down the impact of the F-16s on the deal. 

“This is about stepping up the cooperation to fight terrorism,” he said Tuesday. “It is about lifting restrictions on arms exports and it is about ensuring there is long-term continued cooperation…There are no other agreements.”

Turkey requested the new F-16s from the U.S. in 2021 and U.S. officials have long said the White House hasn’t offered them or other aspects of the U.S.-Turkey relationship as a quid pro quo for accepting Sweden into NATO.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Turkey over its 2017 purchase of Russia’s S-400 air-defense system. Washington also expelled Ankara from the advanced F-35 fighter program, saying that Russia might be able to use the S-400 to hack the aircraft’s electronics.

Turkey has sought the jets to upgrade its aging fleet of combat aircraft and to replace the warplanes it expected to obtain through the F-35 jet fighter program. Turkey uses warplanes in its continuing fight with Kurdish militants in Iraq and has to project power to deter Russia and other adversaries.

The sideline diplomacy comes as NATO leaders gathered Tuesday to discuss Ukraine’s place in the alliance and whether it is prepared to carve a path for Kyiv’s eventual ascension. But officials have tempered expectations in the lead up to the summit and the road to membership for Ukraine is long and fraught with challenges. 

Sullivan pushed back on suggestions that the lack of consensus among current NATO members over whether and when to admit Ukraine undermines the alliance’s unity.

“ Vladimir Putin has been counting on the West to crack, for the trans-Atlantic alliance to crack and he has been disappointed in return,” Sullivan said. 

Write to Vivian Salama at [email protected], Andrew Restuccia at [email protected] and Jared Malsin at [email protected]