Turkey Calls for U.S. to Lift Sanctions Hindering Defense Purchases

Date: 24 September 2024 - 22:19

News ID: ۱۳۱۶۵۷

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called for U.S. sanctions blocking some defense purchases by his country and for other “unilateral” measures that hinder the NATO allies’ ability to hit long-term bilateral trade targets to be lifted.
Ties between the allies have been strained over a host of issues in recent years, ranging from policy differences in the eastern Mediterranean, Syria and Gaza to Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems, which prompted the U.S. sanctions and Turkey’s removal from the F-35 fighter jet program in 2019.
After that, Ankara worked to procure 40 Block-70 F-16 fighter jets and 79 modernization kits from Washington. The deal was approved after Turkey’s blessing of Sweden’s NATO bid, which also led to a thaw in relations.
Ankara and Washington have a long-term goal of $100 billion in bilateral trade, up from about $30 billion in 2023.
During a visit to New York for the U.N. General Assembly, Erdogan told Turkish and American businesspeople that though he believed the goal would be possible to meet, cooperation in defense industry had “fallen very short” of its potential due to the remaining restrictions.
“For this, unilateral applications like additional tariffs in the iron, steel, and aluminum sectors, probes and the CAATSA sanctions need to be abandoned,” he said, referring to the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
“I hope we have turned a new page with the F-16 modernization project, and we expect export restrictions in this field to be permanently lifted,” Erdogan added.
He also said Turkey was advantageous for supply chains, citing cooperation on the production and procurement of 155mm ammunition - an important shell in the Ukraine-Russia war - as an example.
Apart from the F-16s, Turkey has also been interested in the Eurofighter Typhoon jets from Germany, Britain and Spain, but it has complained of a lack of progress over Berlin’s reluctance.