Sweden’s accession to NATO: Erdogan makes US F-16s a condition

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“If you keep your word, our parliament will also keep its word,” Erdogan said on Tuesday, referring to talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. According to Erdogan, the US would also link the F-16 fighter jets to Sweden’s accession to NATO.

For Sweden to join the alliance, the country still needs the approval of Turkey and Hungary. In view of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the country applied for NATO membership together with Finland in May 2022. Finland was welcomed as the 31st member in early April.

Turkey wants to buy new F-16 fighter jets and modern equipment from the US. The US government supports the upgrade of existing F-16 fighter jets and the supply of new fighter jets to Turkey.

However, opposition comes from US senators. After the reopening in early October, the Turkish parliament could vote on Sweden’s accession to NATO.

Hungary’s approval has failed for the time being because of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. “There is nothing that would force Hungary to do this,” he said in the Budapest parliament on Monday.

As justification, he cited a 2019 video that was allegedly shown in Swedish schools and cast doubt on the state of democracy in Hungary. However, observers in Budapest assume that the Hungarian parliament will ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO as soon as Turkey does so.

(SDA)

Source: Blick