President Biden Calls Erdogan After Winning the Presidential Election, Will the F-16 Fighter Jet Be 'Swapped' as Sweden's Accession to NATO Members?

JAKARTA - US President Joe Biden said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated Ankara's desire to buy F-16 fighter jets from the United States, while the Democratic Party politician said Washington wanted Ankara to drop its objections to Sweden's joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in a phone call on Monday.

The conversation came as President Biden congratulated Erdogan on his victory in the second round of Turkey's presidential election on Sunday.

"I spoke to Erdogan. I congratulated Erdogan. He still wanted to work on something about the F-16s. I told him, we want a deal with Sweden, so let's work it out. And we will get back in touch with each other," President Biden said. told reporters before leaving the White House for Delaware, according to Reuters, May 30.

Asked if he expected any movement from President Erdogan regarding Sweden's membership in NATO, President Biden said: "I have discussed the matter with him. We will talk more about it next week."

Separately, the Turkish Presidency in a statement regarding the call between President Biden and President Erdogan said the two leaders agreed to deepen cooperation in all aspects of their bilateral relationship, which is increasingly important in the face of regional and global challenges.

Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year, abandoning the long-held policy of military non-alignment following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Applications for membership must be approved by all NATO members. However, Türkiye and Hungary have yet to agree to Sweden's request.

Meanwhile, Turkey itself is known to have sought to buy $20 billion worth of F-16s and nearly 80 modernization devices from the United States.

However, the sale stalled due to objections from the US Congress to Ankara's refusal to give the green light to NATO expansion, its human rights record and Syria policy, even though President Biden's administration has repeatedly said it supports the sale.

A much smaller $259 million package, including an avionics software upgrade for Turkey's current fleet of F-16 fighters, was approved by the US Congress recently, days after Turkey ratified Finland's membership of NATO.

The Biden administration has repeatedly rejected assertions of a "quid pro quo" between the sale and expansion of NATO, although Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in January, the US side had confirmed approval of the NATO offer would be viewed positively by Congress.

A bipartisan group of senators in a letter in February to President Biden said Turkey's failure to ratify accession protocols for Sweden and Finland, pending at that point, would "call into question this pending sale", referring to the F-16.

A source familiar with the discussions said the United States had previously told Turkey it would be difficult for Congress to approve the F-16 deal if Ankara did not give Sweden the green light.

Turkey ratified Finland's accession to NATO in late March, but continues to reject Sweden, saying Stockholm hosts members of a militant group it deems terrorists. Hungary has yet to agree to Sweden's offer either.

Meanwhile, seeing Sweden join Nato in mid-July when the alliance will hold a summit in Lithuania, is one of Washington's top priorities.