Biden administration approves sale of F-16s to Turkey after Erdoğan ratifies Sweden’s accession to NATO

The Biden administration has approved the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ratified Sweden’s accession to NATO, reports CNN.

The U.S. State Department informed Congress of its plan to sell Turkey $23 billion worth of equipment, including 40 new F-16s. The approval came just hours after Turkey submitted the signed ratification document to Washington. The sale of F-16s was one of the Biden administration’s key tools for pressuring Turkey into approving Sweden’s bid to join NATO, CNN reports.

Some U.S. lawmakers expressed concerns over human rights violations in Turkey but said they would still support the sale, hoping that the country would fulfill commitments to improve its record.

Hungary is now the only NATO country that has not approved Sweden’s membership, despite repeated past vows that it would not be the last member to do so.

Both Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO in the summer of 2022 against the backdrop of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While Finland joined the bloc in April 2023, Ankara put forth a list of demands it said would have to be met before it would approve Sweden’s membership, including stricter measures against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Turkey considers a terrorism group. In July 2023, Erdogan agreed to support Sweden’s bid.