Bloomberg: “Turkey wants F-35, F-16 Viper and withdrawal of claims on S-400 for NATO expansion”

The real reasons for the Turkish “veto” is not the “Scandinavian issue”, but Turkey’s desire to gain access to the latest American F-35 aircraft, upgrade the F-16 to the Viper level and withdraw claims on the S-400, which, in fact, became the main reason conflict.

Turkey threatens to block Swedish and Finnish application for NATO membership not because he wants to side with Russia, but in order to obtain significant geopolitical benefits, taking advantage of the eternal “weakness” of the United States writes Bloomberg.

The main goal of the Turks is the release of weapons systems from Turkey and Germany. The Turks are even demanding the delivery of F-35 fighter jets, as well as their request for new F-16 Vipers.

Bloomberg comments on the situation, citing three senior Turkish officials, noting that the officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to Bloomberg, Turkey is seeking to return to the 5th generation F-35 aircraft program, from which it was excluded after buying S-400 missile defense systems from Russia.

In addition, Turkey is interested in the fate of a pending request for the purchase of dozens of F-16 fighters and upgrade kits for an existing fleet of 80 aircraft. The Turkish leadership is also interested in the United States lifting sanctions for obtaining Russian S-400 systems, which, in fact, became the cause of disagreements between Ankara and Washington, which led to sanctions against Turkey.

Recall, on May 13, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan did the following statement: “We do not view the issue of Finland and Sweden joining NATO positively.” According to the President of Turkey, NATO and USA support terrorism, and he also emphasized: “As regards Sweden and Finlandwe are watching the development of events, but we do not see this as positive because previous governments were wrong about Greece in question NATO. And you know the attitude of Greece towards Turkey, hiding behind NATO. That’s why we don’t want to make the second mistake.”

He noted that he did not plan to negotiate with delegations from these countries, summing up: “Let them not be offended.”

Erdogan’s position was immediately commented on by the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, expressing the hope that “NATO will be able to overcome Turkey’s resistance. Advice EU expresses maximum support for this process.

The head of the leading faction of the European Parliament – the European People’s Party (EPP) – Manfred Weber said that Turkey can expect isolation if it blocks the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO. “Anyone who questions NATO cohesion will be isolated within the community. <...> If both countries themselves want [вступить в НАТО], then Finland and Sweden are part of it, there are no questions. There is no reason to slow it down or block it,” Weber said.

However, experts believe that so far this is just talk, since it is absolutely impossible to ignore such an important partner in NATO, with its 2nd army in the bloc and its unique position. Washington and Brussels are well aware of this, and they also understand that they will have to bargain with Erdogan. And this is far from the kind of person who can be led on the chaff.

Biden and Mitsotakis talked about delivering F-35s to Turkey and upgrading Turkish F-16s.

May 16 meeting between US President Biden and Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis. The details of the meeting were not disclosed, however, press releases reported that it was not only and not so much about Ukraine and the supply of American gas, but about Turkey and the supply of F-35 fighter jets to Ankara, upgrading the F-16 to the Viper level. It is this issue that is the most important for Greece, which is not unreasonably afraid of its eastern neighbor.

And judging by the fact that Biden promised deliveries of the F-35 to Greece, and also judging by published A few days ago, according to the very interesting statements of the Vice-Admiral of the Greek Navy Konstantinos Tsavelas, Turkey will still bargain for itself.

The United States will benefit from this, of course. At the same time, it will improve relations and gain Turkey’s loyalty, deploy several more new military bases and airfields in Greece, and most importantly, sell several dozen very expensive F-35 aircraft to its allies, thus strengthening NATO’s southwestern borders.

What about Sweden and Finland? I think that the proud Baltic democracies will meet Erdogan’s demands. For the right democracy is the power of democrats. Is not it?

The opinion of the author may not reflect the opinion of the editors

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