Biden thanks Erdoğan, US signals support for Turkish F-16s

President Joe Biden thanked his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on June 29 for dropping opposition to the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO, with the U.S. also signalling support for Türkiye's plan to buy F-16 warplanes.

"I want to particularly thank you for what you did putting together the situation with regard to Finland and Sweden," Biden told Erdoğan at a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid.

A senior U.S. official expressed strong backing for Türkiye's wish to upgrade its air force with new F-16 fighter planes and improvements to its existing older fleet.

"The U.S. Department of Defense fully supports Türkiye's modernization plans," Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, told reporters.

"Türkiye is a highly capable, highly valued, strategic NATO ally and Turkish defense capabilities, strong Turkish defense capabilities, contribute to strong NATO defense capabilities," she said.

The warm words from Biden and apparent boost for the delayed F-16 purchases came a day after Türkiye surprised fellow NATO members by dropping weeks of opposition to the Finland and Sweden applications to join the alliance, where unanimous consent is required for enlargement.

Türkiye is an important NATO member in a strategically sensitive location.

A plan to equip Türkiye with state-of-the-art U.S. F-35 stealth fighters fell through after Türkiye bought Russia's S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, something Washington saw as potentially threatening the security of the F-35 programme.

In brief comments at the start of Wednesday's meeting with Erdoğan, before reporters had to leave the room, Biden also praised the Turkish leader for doing a "great job...