Erdogan Urges Separation of Sweden's NATO Accession and Turkey's F-16 Jet Bid

Turkish President Erdogan expressed his dissatisfaction with the US linking the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey with Turkish ratification of Sweden's NATO membership bid. Erdogan stated that President Biden made this connection during a meeting at the G20 summit, which upset Ankara. Turkey had previously requested to buy F-16s and modernization kits from Lockheed Martin, and after objections, Erdogan agreed to forward Sweden's NATO bid to the Turkish parliament for ratification. However, the timing of both the F-16 transaction and the ratification of Sweden's bid remains unclear. Erdogan emphasized that the decision must be approved by the Turkish parliament and called on Sweden to take further steps, including extraditing alleged PKK militants and preventing pro-PKK rallies, before Turkey clears its NATO bid.