Intel: Turkey’s Erdogan wants to talk F-35 dispute with Biden in Rome
After boasting about future defense ties with Russia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he's hopeful the United States will sell Turkey more F-16s.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed optimism on Thursday that his government would recover the $1.4 billion it put toward acquiring Lockheed-Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet amid talks with the United States.
“We will get this $1.4 billion of ours one way or another,” state-owned Anadolu News Agency quoted Erdogan as telling journalists on a flight returning from an official visit to West Africa.
Why It Matters: The US government expelled Turkey from a club of nations allowed to purchase the F-35, the latest-generation fighter jet for the United States and its NATO allies, in 2019 after Ankara also purchased Russia’s S-400 missile defense system.
US officials over two administrations say the Russian air defense system threatens to compromise the F-35’s technology.
