The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has revealed on Friday that Turkey will be turning to countries such as Russia if the United States fails to follow through on a pledge which she had made to deliver F-16 fighter jets.
Turkey had been reportedly kicked out of a programme which had been billed to replace a wide range of fighter, strike and ground attack aircraft for NATO allies after it had acquired an advanced Russian missile defence system in 2019.
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But with US-Turkish relations warming in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States President, Joe Biden had noted to Erdogan in June that he would support the sale of less advanced F-16 jets. This has failed to gain traction in Congress, whose support of military sales is required, because of concern among leading United States lawmakers about Turkey’s tough rhetoric against its traditional foe Greece.
“The US is not the only one selling war planes in the world. The UK, France and Russia sell them as well,” Erdogan told reporters after Friday prayers.
“It’s possible to procure them from other places, and others are sending us signals,” Erdogan said.
Erdogan has made a string of positive comments about Russia ahead of a scheduled meeting with President Vladimir Putin at a regional summit in Uzbekistan next week.
He accused the West of staging “provocations” against Russia by supplying Ukraine with weapons and blamed European sanctions for the continent’s energy crisis.
Erdogan also revealed that he had asked Putin to offer Turkey a discount for the natural gas it imports from Russia.