“We had agreed with him not to involve a third party in our dispute,” said Erdogan Monday at a press conference regarding disputes in the Mediterranean. “Nevertheless, last week he visited the US and spoke in Congress and warned against supplying us with F-16s (fighter jets).”
Erdogan explained: “He doesn’t exist for me anymore. I will never agree to meeting him.” Turkey has been pushing for the purchase of US fighter jets for a long time, but the government in Washington has so far refused to do so. Western diplomats suspect that Turkey is making its approval of Sweden and Finland joining the military alliance NATO dependent on the delivery of the aircraft
When accepting new members, all NATO countries must agree. In 2019, the US stopped the planned delivery of F-35 jets to Turkey after the Turkish military procured the Russian S-400 missile defense system. Turkey later changed their purchase request to the F-16.
