ISTANBUL — An anticipated assembly between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, on the G20 summit in Rome this weekend has been postponed, Turkey’s chief stated Tuesday.
The pair will as an alternative meet on the margins of the COP26 local weather convention in Glasgow, to be held between Oct. 31 and Nov. 12, the place they are going to talk about a potential fighter jet deal, Erdogan instructed reporters aboard a return flight from Azerbaijan.
On Sept. 30, Turkey despatched a formal request to the USA for the acquisition of 40 new F-16 fighter jets and about 80 modernization kits to improve its present fleet.
Erdogan has since sought a gathering with Biden to confirm the deal with goals to get better $1.4 billion Turkey put towards buying F-35 fighter jets earlier than the nation was suspended from this system over its 2019 acquisition of Russian-made S-400 missile protection methods, which US officers say threaten to compromise the F-35’s expertise.
Erdogan has deemed Turkey’s ouster from the F-35 program unfair and pledged to get better the nation’s monetary contributions in creating the next-generation fighter jet, having claimed Washington provided to reimburse Ankara with an F-16 deal, a declare US officials deny.
“There’s some data we obtain on the decrease degree,” Erdogan stated Tuesday. “Some details about giving us F-16s. … The knowledge we obtained is that there’s a plan to pay for this with them. Is that this true or not, we’ll study from them.”
Discussions over the F-16 deal come after a tense diplomatic row this month during which 10 international envoys to Turkey, together with these of the USA, Germany and France, confronted expulsion for calls to launch jailed Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala.
On Monday, Erdogan and the implicated envoys walked back comments, cooling tensions and averting what might have been one among Turkey’s most critical crises with Western allies in recent times.
Whether or not the row impacted the Erdogan-Biden assembly stays unclear, however the standoff doubtless weakened already frayed US-Turkey ties together with Erdogan’s hand in hanging a good fighter jet deal, stated Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Analysis Program on the Washington Institute for Close to East Coverage.
“The shifting from the Rome G20 to Glasgow displays frustration with Erdogan throughout the US authorities and extra particularly throughout the White Home,” Cagaptay instructed Al-Monitor. “Biden himself is just not an enormous fan of Erdogan.”
Cagaptay stated Biden is aware of Erdogan “effectively” after serving as Washington’s foremost interlocutor with the Turkish chief between 2013 and 2016 in former US President Barack Obama’s administration. Cleavages in US-Turkey pursuits in recent times together with Biden’s prior expertise in Ankara might have prompted the US chief to present Erdogan “the chilly shoulder” in conserving direct communications to a minimal since taking workplace, Cagaptay stated.
Past private relations, US lawmakers have additionally more and more voiced issues over Turkey’s warming relations with Russia. On Monday, a bipartisan group of 11 members from the US Home of Representatives urged Biden to not sell Turkey the F-16 package deal in a letter addressed to the president and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“Following President Erdogan’s September announcement that Turkey will buy an extra tranche of Russian S-400 missile protection methods, we can’t afford to compromise our nationwide safety by sending US-manufactured plane to a treaty ally which continues to behave like an adversary,” the lawmakers wrote Monday.
Turkey’s first buy of S-400 missiles triggered sanctions on the nation below the US Countering America’s Adversaries By way of Sanctions Act (CAATSA). Max Hoffman, director for nationwide safety and worldwide coverage on the Middle for American Progress, stated there’s “no straightforward manner across the CAATSA sanctions” with out Turkey altering its place on its S-400s.
“Equally, some within the administration and Congress would most likely wish to make the F-16 sale occur, each to maintain the manufacturing line open and to forestall the whole collapse of protection ties with Turkey,” Hoffman instructed Al-Monitor.
Nonetheless, he famous the F-16 sale might move via a course of involving a presidential waiver, although it could come at a time when Ankara has alienated many former allies in Congress and the manager department in addition to key members of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee, which has the instruments to dam such actions.
“Why would the administration danger a brand new Hill combat now, when Erdogan is so uncooperative and should lose reelection?” Hoffman requested. “The administration has numerous different priorities.”
Parallel to the F-16 query, Washington and Ankara proceed to be at odds in Syria, the place Turkey deployed troops close to areas held by US-backed Kurdish militants Wednesday. The transfer signaled the potential preparation for a brand new Turkish army operation on Kurdish teams following a parliamentary vote a day earlier, which greenlighted the deployment of Turkish troops in Syria and Iraq for 2 extra years.
