US State Department approves sale of F-16 war planes to Turkey
The Biden administration has announced its approved a $US23 billion deal to sell F-16 warplanes to Turkey, after Ankara ratified Sweden’s Nato membership, the state department said.
The state department will now notify Congress of the agreement, as well as of a separate $8.6bn sale of 40 F-35s to Greece, The Guardian reports. Turkey will get 40 new F-16s and upgrades to 79 of the jets in its existing fleet, the state department said in a news release.
The US did not green light the transaction until Turkey’s instruments of ratification of Sweden’s membership had arrived in Washington, a US official said, highlighting the highly sensitive nature of the negotiations, reports Agence France-Presse.
