Turkey will back Sweden's NATO bid if U.S. keeps promise on F-16 sale -Erdogan

[September 26, 2023]  ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's parliament will keep its promise to ratify Sweden's NATO bid if U.S. President Joe Biden's administration paves the way for F-16 jet sales to Ankara, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday, according to Turkish media. 

An F-16 combat jet of the US Airforce is prepared for practice flights ahead of the Air Defender Exercise 2023 at the military airport of Jagel, northern Germany, on June 9, 2023. AXEL HEIMKEN/Pool via REUTERS/ File Photo

Speaking to reporters on his flight back from Azerbaijan's exclave of Nakhchivan, Erdogan said that Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed Sweden's NATO membership bid last week in New York.

The U.S. administration is linking F-16 fighter jet sales to Turkey with Ankara's ratification of Sweden's bid, Erdogan said.

"If they (the U.S.) keep their promises, our parliament will keep its own promise as well. Turkish parliament will have the final say on Sweden's NATO membership," he said.

(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)

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