Biden 'confident' US will be able to sell F-16s to Türkiye

By Firdevs Bulut Kartal

TORONTO (AA) - US President Joe Biden said Wednesday he is “confident” that the United States will be able to sell F-16 fighter jets to Türkiye.

Biden answered journalists' questions before boarding a plane for Finland after attending the NATO summit in Lithuania.

Asked whether New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, who opposes the sale of F-16s to Türkiye, would abandon his objection, Biden said "I'm confident that Türkiye will continue to support Sweden getting into NATO, and I'm confident that we'll be able to sell F-16s."

He said his bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of the NATO summit went very well.

Referring to Ukraine’s prospects of becoming a member of NATO, Biden said: "Not until the war is over. One thing Zelenskyy understands is that it doesn't matter whether he is in NATO now, as long as he has the commitments accepted by the allies."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to send Sweden's NATO accession protocol to parliament following a trilateral meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on Monday.

In addition, Erdogan held a bilateral meeting with Biden on the sidelines of the NATO summit, during which he hailed the start of a “new process” with Washington.