|
A source familiar with the issue said the document could be
deposited as early as Friday, marking the last step in a process
that began in 2022.
After 20 months of delay, Turkey moved rapidly this week to
ratify the Swedish bid, with parliamentary ratification coming
on Tuesday and President Tayyip Erdogan signing off on the
approval on Thursday.
As per formal NATO rules, the final document in the process -
the instrument of ratification - needs to be deposited in the
U.S. State Department archives in Washington.
Turkey's backing, long seen as the main obstacle in securing
Sweden's accession into the western military alliance, leaves
Hungary as the only ally in the military alliance yet to ratify
the Swedish bid.
Both Erdogan and members of the U.S. Congress had previously
linked Ankara's final approval of Sweden to the $20 billion sale
of Lockheed Martin F-16s and modernization kits to Turkey.
Shortly after the Turkish parliament's vote, U.S. President Joe
Biden sent a letter to leaders of key Capitol Hill committees to
inform them of his intention to begin the formal notification
process for the F-16 sale once Ankara completes Sweden's NATO
accession process.
The U.S. Ambassador to Turkey told Reuters on Thursday that he
expected Washington to take rapid steps toward U.S. Congress
endorsement of the sale, with the State Department sending the
formal notification to Congress immediately.
(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by
Tomasz Janowski)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
