Deprived of F-16V, the Turkish president threatens to reinstate his veto on the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO

3 days ! That's how long it took President RT Erdogan to once again threaten a Turkish veto on Sweden's and Finland's membership of the Atlantic Alliance, after the US Congress voted , on the occasion of the vote on the 2023 budget law for the US armed forces, two amendments that hinder the export possibilities of F-16 Viper but also other defense technologies towards Ankara. Of course, the subjects not being supposed to be officially linked, President Erdogan publicly takes umbrage at the lack of "responsiveness" of the Swedish authorities concerning the request for the extradition of 33 refugees to Turkey, accused of belonging to the Kurdish separatist movements. by the Turkish authorities. If the official Turkish discourse can leave room for doubt, the calendar of announcements leaves none as to the reality of the subjects of contention between Ankara, Washington, Stockholm and Helsinki, and the fate of some Kurdish refugees is not there. has little space.

Since his accession to the White House, President Biden and his administration have never stopped trying to bring Turkey and its President RT Erdogan back to more moderate positions, both vis-à-vis NATO and concerning its territorial and political ambitions. For it, the American president has, on several occasions, announced that he was in favor of the request made by Ankara for acquire 40 F-16 Block 70 Viper combat aircraft, the most advanced version of the Lockheed-Martin fighter, and 80 kits to bring as many F-16 Block 52s in service with the Turkish Air Force to this standard. Unfortunately, the United States Congress, both the Democratic-majority House of Representatives and the Democratic-Republican parity Senate, do not view such a conciliatory position favorably, and have, on several occasions, let it be known that he was mostly hostile to the sale of advanced weapons systems to Ankara, in particular for weapon systems that could potentially be used to threaten Greek and Cypriot allies. On the occasion of the vote on the 2023 budget of the Pentagon, it was the House of Representatives, and elected Democrats, who passed two amendments framing such a hypothesis, one prohibiting the sale of weapons systems to countries involved in violations of humanitarian law, the other specifically targeting Ankara, asking the FMS to authorize the sale of the F-16V only if the United States had the assurance that the devices delivered would not threaten Greece.

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