Sale of F-16s gets U.S. agency OK

Turkey’s jet buy comes after it approves Sweden into NATO

WASHINGTON — The State Department notified Congress on Friday that it had approved a $23 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets and related equipment to Turkey after the country’s leader signed documents to allow Sweden’s long-delayed entry into NATO, department officials and the Pentagon said.

Although Congress could move to formally block the sale, four senior lawmakers told the State Department late Friday that they would not object, after their aides reviewed the documents signed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, U.S. officials said.

Congressional officials had demanded to see the documents before signaling their approval of the sale, so the State Department asked Turkey to fly the documents to New York on Friday. The department had someone pick up the documents in New York and bring them to Washington by Friday evening to show the lawmakers.

The department’s subsequent formal notification to Congress means the sale will likely occur, satisfying Erdogan’s main condition for supporting Sweden’s accession to NATO and potentially helping bring to a close an episode that has strained relations between the United States and Turkey.

Turkey was, along with Hungary, one of two NATO members withholding approval of Sweden’s entry into the alliance. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had undertaken intense diplomacy since last year, including meeting with Erdogan in Istanbul this month, to try to change the Turkish leader’s mind.

Blinken discussed the issue with Erdogan in a visit to Turkey in February, and said three times that Turkey would not get the F-16s if it refused to approve Sweden’s accession, a U.S. official said.

The drawn-out process with Turkey has also delayed the sale of F-35 jets to Greece, which became linked to the F-16s in diplomatic talks because Turkey and Greece are longtime rivals, despite both being members of NATO. The State Department also formally told Congress on Friday night that it was going ahead with that sale.

Both Sweden and Finland asked to join NATO after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and almost all of the alliance’s members quickly agreed. Finland joined the alliance in April, but Sweden’s application languished. While Hungary did not raise specific objections, Turkish officials blamed Sweden for harboring Kurds who Turkey officials said were terrorists.

The Turkish parliament voted Tuesday to allow Sweden to join NATO, and Erdogan signed that measure into law Thursday.

In exchange, the White House made a fresh endorsement of the F-16 sale in a letter sent Wednesday to the top Democratic and Republican lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which have oversight of arms transfers by the State Department to other nations.

The White House urged the four lawmakers to give their approval, despite their long-standing reservations about some of Turkey’s foreign policies and military actions, including its growing airstrikes in northeastern Syria against Kurdish fighters who are partners of the U.S. military in its campaign against the Islamic State group.

On Friday night, Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House committee, said Erdogan’s signing of the protocols for Sweden’s accession was “welcome, if overdue, news for the alliance and the broad bilateral relationship.”

The State Department gave the two congressional committees informal notification of the F-16 sale more than a year ago, starting the review process by lawmakers.

Besides asking the department to address concerns over Turkish strikes on the Kurds, lawmakers had also wanted to see assurances from Turkey that it would de-escalate any tensions with the Greek military in the Aegean Sea.