Turkey-US Phone Call: Erdogan and Biden Discuss F-16 Jets and NATO Accession

2023-07-09 18:52:00

9.07.2023 20:52

(Akt. 9.07.2023 20:52)

This time there was only one phone call between Erdogan and Biden ©APA/AFP

Shortly before the NATO summit in Lithuania, US President Joe Biden and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke on the phone. The Turkish presidential office announced on Sunday that they had agreed on a bilateral meeting in Vilnius. Erdogan thanked Biden for supporting the call for US F-16 fighter jets.

At the same time, he made it clear that he didn’t think it was right to link the F-16 issue to Sweden’s NATO accession.

Turkey is currently blocking the Scandinavian country from joining the military alliance. Erdogan Biden said that Sweden had taken steps in the right direction by changing the terror legislation. At the same time, however, he accused Sweden of allowing “terrorism” glorifying demonstrations and thus nullifying the progress made, as the statement revealed. A Koran was recently burned during a demonstration in Sweden, causing outrage in the Muslim world.

The White House initially gave no information regarding the call. Biden had previously spoken in a CNN interview regarding the struggle for Sweden to join NATO. He made it clear that he saw the fighter jets as a means to solve the blockade: Turkey is aiming to modernize its F-16 fleet and Greece is also asking for help, he said. “So, frankly, I’m trying to put together something like a consortium that we can use to strengthen NATO in terms of both Greece’s and Turkey’s military capability and allow Sweden to come in.” Biden added it’s not done yet, but he’s optimistic.

The US government has repeatedly emphasized in the past that it supports Turkey’s efforts to modernize its F-16 fleet, but that this is not a consideration for the country’s approval of NATO’s northern expansion.

Biden also addressed the burning of the Koran in Sweden. Turkey criticizes that the Swedish security apparatus does not prevent such incidents. The Koran burning put Erdogan “in a difficult situation at home,” Biden said. “They are working to prevent that,” he added, without being more specific as to whether he meant Sweden.

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