WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden said he had spoken with re-elected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about Ankara’s desire to buy American F-16 fighter jets and its objection to Sweden joining NATO.
The conversation took place after Biden called Erdogan to congratulate him for winning Turkey’s presidential run-off on Sunday.
Erdogan received 52 percent of votes to Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s 48 percent, after the election went to a second round following the failure of either candidate to win a majority in the first round on 14 May.
“I spoke to Erdogan. I congratulated Erdogan. He still wants to work on something on the F-16s. I told him we wanted a deal with Sweden, so let’s get that done. And so we’ll be back in touch with one another,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
Erdogan has expressed his reluctance to ratify Sweden’s membership of NATO since it applied for membership last year, complaining that the Scandinavian country wasn’t doing enough to combat terrorism, referencing its harboring of wanted Kurdish militants.
Bids to join the military alliance must be ratified by all its members. Turkey and Hungary are yet to approve Stockholm’s application.
Asked whether he anticipated any movement from Erdogan on Sweden’s bid, Biden said: “I raised that issue with him. We’re going to talk more about it next week.”
The U.S. Congress has previously proposed Swedish membership as a condition for the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.
It has objected to Ankara’s attempts to buy $20bn worth of F-16s and modernization kits, citing Turkey’s refusal to approve NATO enlargement, its record on human rights and its policies regarding neighboring Syria.
Ankara ratified NATO membership for Finland in March.