"It is no coincidence that I am here right after Turkey's approval of Sweden's accession to NATO," said the US Deputy Secretary of State, among other things
If we can resolve the S400 issue the US will welcome Turkey back into the F35 family, US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said on Tuesday.
In an interview with CNN Turk on the occasion of her official visit to Ankara, Ms. Nuland said that "it is no coincidence that I am here right after Turkey approved Sweden's NATO membership."
"As you know, two new countries are joining NATO with the participation of Finland. This strengthens our alliance. We are also very happy that Turkey went ahead with us by saying 'yes' to Sweden. As you know, while we've been waiting for this to happen – not to say a break – but this has been the most dominant issue in our relationship. So one of the things Secretary Blinken asked me to do was to revitalize the rest of our relationship and get back to talking about the things we need to do in 2024, including preparing for the NATO summit in Washington in July," he said.
He spoke of a "very optimistic visit to plan everything in terms of the economy, security and human relations, as we all come back to work together on this very important relationship."
Asked about the F-16 sale process, the American diplomat said that "while you were working in your own parliament, we were trying to explain to our Congress that Turkey's deployment of the F-16 fleet is very important to American security and that being fully active and participating at this level is important for sharing the burden among allies. You already have a large fleet of F-16s. But it will be important for us to improve that."
He said the notification was received by the State Department, delivered to Congress, and the notification period will expire 15 days from Friday "and then we will start implementing it."
Victoria Nuland said “there are many strands to this deal. It is about the modernization of existing fighters and the sale of new fighters. Both strands are important. As I understand it, the modernization starts immediately. "Frankly, I don't know when the new fighters will be ready, but it's clear that getting these fighters from Turkey is a priority for the US."
Asked about the possibility of Turkey returning to the F-35 program, Victoria Nuland said: “I'm just saying this as a reminder. The CAATSA sanctions were related to your Government's decision to purchase S-400 air defense systems from the Russian Federation. This is what triggered the CAATSA sanctions.”
The American diplomat added that “we were in the process of negotiating the Patriot sale, and while those negotiations were going on, Turkey went in another direction. That's why we had some discussions today. Frankly, if we can resolve this S-400 issue, which we want to do, the US will be happy to welcome Turkey back into the F-35 family. But we have to solve this other issue first, and while we solve it, we also have to make sure that Turkey has a strong air defense.”
Asked if she proposed any formula to Turkey to solve the issue, Victoria Nuland said that "we have been proposing to talk about strengthening air defense for many years, both before the purchase of the S-400s and since then. As you know, this is a complex issue. Everyone needs air defense these days. We see this all over the world. But if we can still get past this issue, the CAATSA issue will go away and we can get back to the F-35 talks."
Asked about her meetings in Ankara as part of the strategic mechanism, Ms. Nuland said she had very good discussions on all aspects of the US-Turkey relationship. “Our aim was to set an ambitious set of targets for 2024. We have an upcoming dialogue on energy and the environment. We want to work together on new clean energy technologies. We had a good discussion about the possibilities in this regard. We will also have trade talks under the umbrella of TIFA. We hope to achieve this in the coming months," he added.
“I've had the opportunity to meet with US businesses, we have some big deals we're working on. I hope these bear fruit. We started working in the defense industry again. Turkey now produces 155mm ammunition. We really need this. Ukraine needs it very much. We are working on it. We are also working on other types of defense trade initiatives where we can collaborate. Of course, we already do a lot in agriculture, textiles and similar sectors. These are very very important. In recent years, our negotiations on the fight against terrorism have not been at the level they should be. That is why we want to return to a robust dialogue on counter-terrorism actions. And of course, we are partners in addressing and discussing all the challenges in the Middle East," he said.