Erdogan calls for ‘positive steps’ with Biden on F-35 program

Jan 15, 2021

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes the incoming Biden administration will take “positive steps” regarding Turkey’s exclusion from the F-35 stealth fighter program. 

“We don’t know what the Biden administration will say at this stage,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul on Friday. “Despite having paid a serious fee on the F-35s, the F-35s still have not been given to us. This is a serious wrong the United States did against us as a NATO ally.” 

“My hope is that, after we hold talks with Biden as he takes office, we will take much more positive steps and put these back on track.”

The Trump administration booted Turkey from the Joint Strike Fighter program in July 2019 over its multibillion-dollar purchase of the Russian-made S-400 missile defense system, which the United States says poses a threat to NATO’s air defense capabilities and may compromise the security of its own F-35 stealth fighter jets.

Turkish officials maintain that Russia won’t be able to obtain any sensitive NATO information because the S-400s won’t be integrated into the alliance’s air-and-missile infrastructure. They also say Turkey was forced to buy the controversial systems, which they tested in October, after the United States refused to sell Turkey its own Patriot systems.