US to send Turkey F16s following Ankara’s approval of Sweden's NATO accession

US President Joe Biden has agreed with Turkey's request for F-16 fighter jets and the upgrade of its old warplanes not long after Ankara approved Sweden's bid to join NATO in a U-turn. 

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan announced on Tuesday that the US president had given his support to Turkey's aircraft requests. 

Sullivan told reporters that Biden had agreed to upgrade Turkey's military airplanes. "He has placed no caveats on this ... He intends to move forward with that transfer," Sullivan said without giving further details pertaining to the F16 deal.

Before Sullivan, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had said the United States supported the “modernization” of the Turkish military.

Last year, Ankara requested $20 billion worth of new F16 fighters and nearly 80 modernization kits to upgrade its older aircraft.

Biden's support for Turkey's request for modern aircraft came a day after Ankara eventually approved Sweden’s bid for NATO accession. All NATO members must approve the accession of a new member.

Turkey's initial opposition to  Sweden’s NATO accession had been the main obstacle to the Nordic country's bid to join the North Atlantic Alliance.

Read more: 

• US senators say no F-16 upgrades for Turkey if it blocks NATO bid of Finland, Sweden

On Monday, Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan surprisingly said he was no longer opposed to Sweden’s NATO accession, saying he now supported Stockholm's NATO bid and the rest was up to the country's lawmakers. However, he said he would push the parliamentarians for their approval of Sweden’s NATO accession.

Erdogan had initially conditioned his approval of Sweden's NATO bid to Stockholm ending all support to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU, and the United States. He had hinged sending accession documents to parliament for ratification to securing concessions from Stockholm.

Then, Erdogan changed the demands, saying Ankara would agree to Sweden's accession to the NATO military alliance only if the European Union agrees to Turkey's membership in the EU bloc.

Some experts believe that Erdogan was leveraging Sweden's NATO bid to get Washington to agree on the aircraft deal. 

"There seems to have been a big push by the Biden administration to allow Turkey to modernize its air force and acquire new F-16s," said Camille Grand, a defense specialist at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

Meanwhile, the timetables remain unclear for both the F-16 transfer and Sweden's NATO accession. Russian officials said Sweden's expected accession to NATO would have "negative implications" for Russia's security and that Moscow would have to respond.

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