Turkey insists on separation between F16 sales, NATO enlargement

Sweden’s Defense Minister Pal Jonson is headed to Turkey next week in the first visit by a Swedish official since tensions ramped up over Swedish protesters hanging an effigy of Turkey's president.
ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (R) greets Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Tobias Billstrom (L) in Ankara on Dec. 22, 2022. - ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images
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Nazlan Ertan
@NazlanEr

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday that Ankara dropping its objections to the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO should not be a precondition for the US sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. 

“The two issues are separate and are running their own course,” Cavusoglu told Turkish journalists after meeting with his US counterpart Anthony Blinken in Washington Wednesday.

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