Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said recently that the United States made Sweden’s membership of NATO a condition for selling F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, which made Turkey “very disappointed.” Some analysts believe that this matter will bring more uncertainty to Sweden’s path to “joining the treaty”.
At the press conference of the Group of Twenty (G20) Leaders’ Summit held in India recently, Erdogan revealed that he and US President Biden had an informal conversation during the summit. Biden said that the United States could Sell 40 F-16 fighter jets and 80 existing fighter “upgrade packages” to Turkey, but the condition is that Turkey needs to approve Sweden’s membership of NATO. Erdogan said this was “very disappointing” for Türkiye.
Erdogan also added that whether to give Sweden the “green light” to join NATO should be decided by the Turkish parliament and not by himself alone. Some analysts believe that this matter may bring more uncertainty to Sweden’s “treaty accession” process, and that the leaders of the United States and Turkey may meet during the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 18 to strive for a “breakthrough” “progress.
In May 2022, Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO at the same time, and Finland was officially approved to join NATO on April 4 this year. Currently, Turkey and Hungary are the only two NATO members that have not yet approved Sweden’s application to join the Treaty. Turkey has previously had a particularly tough attitude, saying many times that it would not allow Sweden to join NATO unless Sweden stopped supporting the Kurdistan Workers Party, a “terrorist organization” designated by Turkey.
After the NATO summit in July, Turkey’s attitude softened, and Erdogan agreed to submit the protocol for Sweden’s accession to NATO to the Turkish parliament as soon as possible. Sullivan, the U.S. President’s National Security Advisor, immediately stated that the United States will begin transferring F-16 fighter jets to Turkey after consulting with Congress. However, due to the summer recess of the Turkish Parliament, the review of Sweden’s “treaty accession” application has been postponed to October.
At present, the specific time for the U.S.-Turkish F-16 fighter jet transaction and Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s accession to the treaty has not been determined. On September 7, Swedish Foreign Minister Billström stated that Sweden is ready to join NATO and is waiting for Turkey to start the process of approving the application.
Source : baijiahao.baidu.com
