Biden's support for selling F-16s to Turkey 'nothing new,' says White House

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US President Joe Biden's support for Turkey's purchase of new F-16 fighter jets did not come after his meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the NATO summit at the end of June, the White House press secretary said.

"The conversation about the F-16 and Turkey has been around for some time. We've talked about this several months ago. So there's really nothing new. The president has supported that effort," Karine Jean-Pierre said during a press conference yesterday (July 6).

She was asked about criticism from "several prominent Democrat lawmakers" against Biden's remarks that he supports selling the jets to Turkey after the meeting with Erdoğan.

Ahead of the NATO summit, Erdoğan had said the F-16s would be the most important issue to be discussed with Biden, criticizing the US for "stalling tactics."

The two presidents had also made remarks about the issue at separate press conferences following the summit.

Biden had said the issue with the modernization of Turkey's F-16s should be solved and said he hadn't changed his position on the matter since December.

He had expressed optimism that the Congress would give the required green light for the selling of the aircraft to Ankara.

Also responding to a question about the issue, Erdoğan had said a delegation from Turkey had talks with both Republican and Democrat lawmakers, noting Biden's "sincere efforts" to secure the deal.

The US in 2019 removed Turkey from the F-35 joint strike fighter project following its procurement of the S-400 surface-to-air missile systems. Turkey then asked Washington for the modernization of its F-16 jets, as well as the modernization of the planes in its inventory. (SD/VK)