ANKARA (Middle East Eye) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged U.S. President Joe Biden to lift all “unjust” sanctions on Turkey’s defense industry.
According to a statement from Erdogan’s office, he also told Biden that Turkey expected its request to purchase 40 new F-16 fighter jets and modernize its existing fleet to be finalized as soon as possible.
Ankara had ordered more than 100 F-35s from the U.S. but was removed from the program in 2019 after it acquired Russian S-400 missile systems. Its defense industry was subsequently sanctioned by the U.S. in December 2020.
Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 is subject to the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, which seeks to penalize any foreign government for working with the Russian defense sector.
The U.S. has argued that the Russian missiles pose a threat to the F-35 plane and strongly objects to their use within the NATO alliance, while Ankara denies they pose any security threat, insisting that they would be used independently and not integrated into the alliance’s systems.
Turkey has maintained that it only sought the Russian-made system after it tried, without success, to purchase the American Patriot missile system.
In September, Turkey sent the U.S. a letter of request to purchase 40 F-16s and 80 modernization kits.
A readout of Thursday’s call from the White House did not mention a discussion about sanctions or Turkey’s request regarding the F-16s.
But it said Erdogan and Biden had talked about opportunities to strengthen ties.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki described the call as “constructive”, saying they spoke for roughly an hour.