Biden and his team made tremendous efforts to extract the word “Yes” from the Turkish president, after the latter forced him to make a series of concessions, according to the Washington Post.
The NATO summit in Vilnius began without drama as usual, as Erdoğan was able to extract concessions from the West behind the scenes in exchange for his approval of Sweden’s accession to NATO.
The Turkish president had met with Volodymyr Zelensky and declared that Ukraine was suitable to join NATO, indicating that Sweden wasn’t ready and needed to do more to embrace the “terrorist” Kurdish factions.
Among Erdoğan’s requests is to provide his country with F16 aircraft, in addition to modernizing Türkiye’s air fleet.
Erdoğan didn’t forget to urge the coalition to send a clear and strong message about Türkiye’s offer to join the European Union.
In fact, Biden and his team from the White House made tremendous efforts to convince Congress of Erdoğan’s requests and that it is better to keep Türkiye inside the NATO tent.
Turkish “thanks” began to pour in for Biden’s efforts, who said, “I am ready to work with President Erdoğan and Türkiye to strengthen defense and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic region”.
The F16s may not arrive immediately, but they will.
As for Sweden, it agreed to support the expansion of the European Union’s free trade agreement with Türkiye.
According to the author, the remaining members of the European Union are open to negotiations.
