U.S. President Donald Trump may lift sanctions on Turkey and resume the sale of fighter jets after talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Fox News reported.
Trump expressed interest in resuming a deal to sell F-16 fighter jets to Ankara, and even a future sale of the newer F-35s last weekend, the outlet said, citing two sources.
Erdoğan told Trump that to improve bilateral defense cooperation, it is necessary to end the sanctions on Turkey under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).
The F-16 procurement process should also be finalized, and Turkey should be let back into the F-35 program, he said.
According to one source familiar with the request, Trump’s team has requested legal and technical analysis on ways to avoid determining that Turkey is in violation of the CAATSA.
Congress approved the $23 billion sale of 40 F-16s and modernization kits for 79 planes already in the Turkish fleet last year. Negotiations between Turkey’s defense ministry and Lockheed Martin, which builds the jet, are ongoing.
However, a deal for the F-35's hinges on scrapping Turkey’s Russian S-400 air defense system, Fox News wrote citing two sources.
Ankara was kicked out of the F-35 program in 2019 after it purchased the mobile missile-to-air system over “spying concerns” associated with having a Kremlin-operated system so close to a high-level U.S. technology.
At the time, the White House said the purchase would have “detrimental impacts” on Turkey’s participation in NATO.
The S-400 could either be partially disassembled or moved to a U.S. military base in Turkey, Fox News reported on Friday.
Experts describe the F-35 as a “status symbol.”
“The F-35 club is really for trusted allies,” said Jonathan Schanzer, executive director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told the outlet.
The presidents spoke on the phone last Sunday and the Turkish government is pushing for an in-person meeting in Washington.
Trump’s comments come after Portugal opted against buying F-35s over Washington’s recent policy shift and Canada said it would review its plans after the U.S. president imposed sanctions on its northern neighbor.
